


Goodbye Apathy

by Kisarafox



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anal Fingering, Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Blood and Gore, Bottom Keith, Boys Kissing, Dark Humor, Disturbing Themes, Double Penetration, Especially Keith, Everyone is OOC here, Explicit Language, Fluff, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, I'm torturing Keith, Keith centric, Kidnapping, M/M, Manipulation, Not so clueless Lance, Psychological Torture, Random snuggle party, Rough Sex, Schizophrenia, Shiro in a dress (purely for my amusement), Threesome - M/M/M, Top Lance, Top Shiro, fluffy sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-24 10:55:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 39,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7505494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kisarafox/pseuds/Kisarafox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to simple: save Allura, get the hell out. Part one accomplished, but as the voltron team is escaping through their wormhole things go wrong. One of their own is left behind in the clutches of the Galra. </p><p>Tortured to the brink of insanity, Keith can no longer distinguish dreams from what's real and it's up to Team Voltron to put their red paladin back together.</p><p>Summary subject to change...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Abandoned

**Author's Note:**

> Since I don't have a laptop these chapters won't be lengthy cause typing on a small screen is cramping. If you aren't a fan of Keith bottoming then please turn back, I don't enjoy flames. Also, about the Zarkon/Keith thing (probably next few chapters) it's just part of interrogation tactic nothing mor. Thought I felt the need to add that. Also for tags, some may or may not apply to the chapters itself and more will be added as it progresses. I'll put the warnings incase anyone is triggered by anything. 
> 
> Chapter warning: Hallucinations and disturbing scenes

**Chapter One**

Keith is screaming.  
  
Everything inside him is burning-fire running through his veins running deep, deep scarlet and ashen. Ashen black so putrid he can't draw air quick enough to ease the pain welling up within the pit of his stomach and spreading through his entire being threatening to tear him apart from the inside out

It hurts.  
  
Everywhere hurts and he wants to die.  
  
His entire body is shaking trying to expel whatever is trying to ebb it's way into his heart and mind. It tries to consume him whole and leave nothing behind. He swears he can hear Allura screaming from somewhere as if she was calling out in a place beyond his reach.  Keith feels something grab onto his arms and he struggles against the hold. Another cry of agony rips from him as he feels sharp needles twisting up from where the claws have him, shooting up from the tips into his veins. Fuck it hurt! _It hurt!_ He wanted it to stop. He'd give anything for it to stop...!  
  
"Stop it!" He shrieks as fresh pain blossoms in his chest..  
  
Something laughs at his cries, hissing out in garbled words to indistinguishable to make out through the heavy haze. It is mocking and grates against his ears like sandpaper making his head spin. He wants it to end. All of it-his pain. His life. The crazed laughter. 

Just stop.

"That's enough Haggar, I think our little paladin is ready to talk."

All at once everything stills. There is no more pain, no more laughter. The feeling of claws slowly ease from him and he lets out a shaky breath. Keith opens his eyes (strange, he doesn't remember closing them in the beginning) but squints at the harsh lights aimed directly in his face.

"Emperor Zarkon I know I can extract more information from this fleshbag. I just need more time," the raspy voice of a woman hisses from his right. 

"I know what you are capable of but we need him coherent enough to answer my questions," came the sharp reply. 

Keith whimpers as a hand reaches out to grip tightly into his hair, yanking his head up and look at the Galra leader. "I'm not telling you anything!" He spat and the grip tightens almost painfully making him hiss. 

"Oh I doubt you won't be stubborn for long. Haggar continue," the Galra leader hissed impatiently releasing his hold. "It seems we'll have to do more to loosen his stubborn tongue."

"As you wish, Emperor Zarkon," the witch hissed eagerly to please.

And the torture continues until the paladin blacks out, welcoming the sweet emptiness of darkness.

XXXXXXX

Rescue Allura.

Sounded easy when you didn't add in Zarkon’s entire military fleet and annoying flighters that couldn't aim for shit but still managed to piss everyone off. It was bound to fail though, or get them all killed...at least that's what Coran so dutifully put it when they warped near Zarkon's ship, guns blazing and ready to destroy anything that would stop them from getting their princess back. There was no doubt the Galra was expecting them, had expected their arrival and set a trap just to obtain the lions especially the black one.

Who knew he had been the first to pilot the majestic, metallic beast? Surely there was a mistaken somewhere in the beasts coding but there was no time to question it, not when their leader was flung from the cockpit like a ragdoll into open space.

So Keith acted against Coran's explicit instructions to not engage and now here he was, in a fucking cell handcuffed by himself when the rest of the team was in 'fuck-it-if-he-knew' space somewhere millions of miles away. And all thanks to that goddamn witch, Haggar.

The red paladin makes an irritable sound at the back of his throat and thumps his head against the wall he rests against. They manage to save the princess and yet now they would have to come rescue him. He kind of hopes they wouldn't come for him and risk another attempt at Zarkon stealing the lions. Hell, he's damn lucky he is no where near his lion when he was ejected out of the wormhole back into the tyrants immediate area. And he doubts they realized he was gone by the time Zarkon moves on to another planet to destroy.

Somewhere, Keith can hear Lance laughing his ass off at his misfortune but jokes on him when he can't form Voltron cause of a missing member. Maybe then they'll realize he was gone. "Fuck, this sucks," he murmurs, his head still pounding from whatever the witch had tried doing to him. 

He blinks slowly as he tries hard not to glare at the offending bare wall in front of him. If they had eyes, they would have probably been looking back, gleaming with taunting pupils he desperately fights the panic welling up in the pit of his chest threatening to consume him in a fire of rage and misery. As far as he can tell, there is no window to escape this horrid place. It was all completely barren, the only exit a purplish barrier that shocked him when he had tried touching it earlier after waking up and finding himself in the room.  The only exception to this sickly scene of emptiness is the colorful array of alien toys scattered about the floor. A solider thought it to be funny to keep him entertianed until his next "session" with Haggar, which Keith promptly screamed for him to fuck off. Though it was just a way to annoy him, he found some comfort in the strange children toys, at least it didn't feel like he was truly alone. They lay scattered, seemingly collecting in one area; the far right corner but thrown with wild abandon, as if a child threw a tantrum and left them all there, desolate and alone with no care. The heads of the dolls plucked off from their bodies mangled stained red.  
  
Scattered, torn and red.  
  
Keith shudders unconsciously leaning forward to inspect them closer. Wet red runs out of their empty sockets making them appear to be crying. The face morphs and he jerks back in horror as Lance's face stares back at him, his eyes lifeless and face sunken. He chokes on the cry that tries to force his way out as the other alien dolls change to match the faces of his friends. The neck that the heads used to be attached to spill more red and begins to stain the ground.

Suddenly Lance's head spasms and blinks up at him slowly through black cavities. "Your fault..." He groans brokenly from his sewed mouth. "This is all your fault."

_I’m not crazy._

Keith curls into himself, blocking them from crow and repeats the words in his head until he can't stand it anymore.

_I'm not crazy._

_I'm not crazy._

**_I'm. Not. Crazy._ **

But he knows he’s loosing his mind. From the way he thinks they look at him. From the way they are gleaming, whispering into his ears. They're so real yet how could they be? This wasn't right.

"It's because of you we're dead," the haunting voice of Allura snarls viciously from another doll. "You killed us."

"All your fault," Pidge hollers. 

Hunk screeches, unable to do more than that.

The black lion is silent but that seems worse than the yelling.

Their voices grow louder until their practically swollowing him whole. Pounding into his head and making it hard to think. 

_Your fault._

_Your fault your fault your fault!_

**You killed us!**  
  
He can't hold it in any longer.

Keith screams. 

In the throne room, Zarkon smiles faintly as the human cries reach his ears. Soon, he'll have all the information he needs and the lions will be his. "I think our prisoner is ready to talk."

**To be Continued...**


	2. Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry...actually I'm not. You are all going to hate me for this...this might actually be the chapter that causes people to flame but I must do what I gotta do. 
> 
>  
> 
> Warning: Gore/disturbing imagery

**Chapter Two**

Keith cries in agony, or at least he tries. If not for the cotton crammed between his teeth he would have been hollering his throat sore at the injustice he is put through. He struggles against his bonds but every movement, no matter how insignificant, sends jolts of pain forcing him to relax and remain still. However, he really can't stay relaxed; his legs are cramping from being tied together for so long without moving. His body throbs with aches, unable to accept being strained like this.

The human release a pained whimper when a cold hand wraps around the back of his neck and shoves him face first into the ground. The motion makes it feel like a thousand knives are tearing through him, shattering every bone in his body and he screams. Keith struggles to get back into a sitting position but a foot lands painfully against his spine keeping him there.

"Be still," his assailant snaps. Keith’s hair is grabbed and roughly pulled back, jerking his head upwards. His hand are bound in front of him and even as he tries to reach up to pry the fingers away, his hand is battered away in annoyance.

Keith struggles. 

He doesn't want to be forced to see the sight before him so he shuts his eyes definitely.

"Now, now don’t be so stubborn," the galra sighs in mock exasperation. "I went all the way to find him, at least take a look."

Keith chokes on the gag, tears leaking from corner of his eyes and he opens them. He bites his tongue to keep from crying out and allows the warm taste of copper to flood his mouth. An urge to spit the wad of blood at his tormenter crosses his mind but he can't with the gag in the way. How the hell did this sick, twisted bastard even get a chair into his tiny cell? Although, it's not really important. It's the person sitting in said chair that rises bile in his throat, threatening to expel into the floor.

**Lance**.

The Hispanic’s arms are tied against his body, his hands pulled behind him secure to the back of the chair. His uniform is in rags, exposing his flesh and making ugly dark black and purple visble against tan skin. Keith can’t tell if he's alive, but hopes he isn't so he doesn't move. Steel hooks protrude from Lance’s back, the thick chains leading up towards the ceiling.

Keith visibly struggles to not scream in outrage at seeing his teammate. 

A hand runs through his hair and he growls low in his throat. "Poor guy, he really tried all he could to save you," his captor says with a sigh. "Bust in here waving his Bayard like a maniac until he was subdued."

Keith refuse to take the bait. He knows this game all to well-if he speaks he'll pay the price with a broken bone. If he twitches someone else, an innocent he never met but still used against him, will pay. He shudders at what the emperor will do to Lance if he moved towards him.

"Not even going to say hello to your fellow paladin?" Comes a scoff. "He was determined and had a really big mouth. I cut his tongue to get him to stop though he was persistent still and this is what he gets? Silence. You are quite the heartless one aren't you."

The words sting more than Keith will admit.

Zarkon finally removes his foot from the top of Keith’s back, removing his iron grip and walking towards Lance's motionless form. Keith follows the galra leaded with suspicion. 

"Wakey, wakey," the leader sings slapping Lance's still face. 

His hackles rise, left eye twitching. How dare he…

Signing from the lack of response, Zarkon takes a hook in hand and yanks mercilessly. Blood splatters from the wound but there's still no reaction from Lance, still unconscious. Keith can hear his teeth crack from how tight he clenched them. 

"Hmmm...I think he's de-"

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Keith sheriks, no longer able to remain idle as the galra pulls the hooks several times for good measure. "I'LLKILLYOUI’LLKILLYOUI'LLKILLY-!"

His head smashes to the floor once again but he keeps snarling. Eyes wide and wild, he can feel himself foaming at the mouth. Rage engulfs him, fear extinguishing by the burning desire to  _ kill  _ fills him. He thrashes like an animal under Zarkon’s boot. He had slammed it down on his head to keep him in place. 

Zarkon doesn't seem to care. Instead he reaches into his belt and pulls out a familiar blade. It halts Keith in his tracks. 

"M-my knife?" He whispers in disbelief. They had taken it from him, along with his Bayard upon his capture. 

The galra looks down at him removing his foot and walking back to the other tied to the chair. 

"W-what are you doing?!" He demands head snapping up to glare after him. 

Zarkon calmly stands behind the blue paladin and holds the sharp knife to his neck. He doesn't move as he stares at Keith through cold yellow eyes. "Tell me where the lions are," he says. 

Keith hisses-if he knew he would have told him ages ago but he didn't know. And he tells him such. The galra frowns in irritation and grabs onto a hook with his free hand. 

Lance groans, lifting his head and Keith releases a broken sob. His eyes are no longer where they should be, an empty black cavern where they used to be. "K-Keith?"

Zarkon pulls the chain-hard. The scream Lance rleases echoes in their tiny space. It's filled with so much agony, so much pain it makes Keith scream along with him. 

"Stop it! Stop it!" Keith begs. He's crying, the tears spilling down his cheeks. "I don't know I swear!"

He does, and Lance pants for air between his agonized mummbles of pain. 

"Tell me."

"I don't know!" Keith curses in earnest. "I don't know please...please let him go!"

Zarkon regards him before letting go of the chain. "I guess you really don't know..."

Keith sighs in relief, but it’s short lived. 

The galra jerks Keith's knife in a wide, sweeping motion, severing Lance's head from his neck. He chokes on the blood, horrifed gags releasing from the back of his throat in a mess of words. It’s messy, since the blade isn't made for decapitation so he has to saw and hack until the head becomes lose.

Keith screams.

Lance's head bounces off his knees and rolls, stopping a foot away from the red paladin. 

"Lance!" He cries in anguish. 

He crying uncontrollably now as he inches close ignoring the pain that shoots through him. Rolling into his side, he brings his body to curl around the detached body part, cradling it to him until he can feel the liquid sep into his clothes. Inside his thoughts are a mess. All coherent words seem to vanish deep among the chaos in his mind. He can't comprehend what just happened. 

_ I don’t know. _

_ I don’t know. _

**_I don’t know!_ **

He feels numb. 

Zarkon sneers down at him and strods out the cell. "Pathetic," he throws over his shoulder before leaving the paladin to his grief. 

**To be continued...**


	3. Bon Appétit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Le gasp! Two updates in one week? I must really enjoy writing this! Also, surprised no one flamed me for that last chapter but that's good, it means there are sickos out there that enjoy me torturing characters simply for my amusement.
> 
> Warnings: disturbing images, bodily fluids (ie vomit) and someone needs to hug Keith, the poor dear

**Chapter Three**

He doesn’t know how long he stays lying on the cold floor, Lance’s head clenched against his body. The only way he can tell how much time has passed is the smell of rotting flesh clinging to the air around him. Keith isn’t bothered by it-it's a reminder that Lance is still with him. His body was moved some time ago but the red paladin had refused to let the severed body part be taken from him, snarling at any galra soldier who dared get close enough to even try.

Keith doesn't move. He doesn't eat or sleep. Food that is pushed into his cell is ignored or kicked away because it makes him ill knowing they are only doing it to try and make him obey.

He hasn’t moved since Zarkon’s departure. When another interrogator comes to try and force him to corporate, with threats of finding his other friends and killing them slowly, he just stares at them blankly with sullen eyes until they give up and leave him to his misery. As hours pass, Keith entertains the thought of them just killing him and getting it over with. He really doesn't know where Allura or her castle is. 

After being catapulted out if his lion in the wormhole, the red mechanical cat was flung into another part of the universe as he was forced out into the galra's line of sight. They are wasting there time with him 

The cell opens behind him.

Keith lifeless eyes drift toward the entrance before pointedly looking at the wall away from the intruders.

"Oh, poor thing...and such a handsome boy too..." A sickly female voice coos through the silence.

The red pilot tenses and draws Lance's head closer to shield it from prying eyes. 

It's two of Zarkon’s galra Druids. They, like all Druids under Haggar's control, wear long brown robes that conceal their bodies. These two in particular are the witches favorite out of the bunch. The shorter one, Xiola, has long blue hair, a yellow mask covering the left side of her face. Her companion is a foot taller, her name Kiola. She has shorter pink hair, her mask covering the right side of her own face. They wear identical smirks but Keith hardly pays them any mind.

"Hmmmm time to get up human," Xiola purrs. 

"He's not eating," Kiola hisses in disdain. She glares at the untouched meal and kicks it away into the wall. "He'd rather clench onto that rotting head...urgh, looks like we have to do this the hard way."

Keith doesn't think it’s possible but he curls up in a tighter ball, wrapping his arms around the still head like a lifeline. He'd rather them drag him by his hair then get up to follow them. And that exactly what they do. Suddenly, he finds himself being dragged to his feet by the coller of his shirt. His grip loosens around Lance and he screams bloody murder.

"Let me go!" He snarls. He wants to stay in his cell!

He wants to feel Lance because it's the only thing keeping him from losing his mind. 

The two Druids don't listen to his pleas to be released. Instead, they clamp on a pair of handcuffs and practically drag him out of his cell since his legs are too weak to support his weight. Keith doesn't know where they are going. Long ago he stopped bothering trying to figure out which hallway lead where since most entries needed a galra signature. He is never given an opportunity to subdue a guard to even get a hand to help him...that was a month ago...or was it? 

He stopped bothering to keep track of the days since space isn't really good keeper. 

After a long walk down several winding corridors he's pushed inside a room and guided towards a chair. There isn't much light but it is a small blessing, so used to not being in bright rooms because his cell was always dimmed.

Keith is sitting at the head of a long white dining table, but only that's in front of him is covered with decadent looking oddly shaped items, presumably alien food. It makes his stomach twist in disgust at the sight and he refuses to touch any of it. 

"Unfortunately, Emperor Zarkon will not be dining with you," Kiola hums. She places a dish of grey liquid filled to the brim with green, yellow, purple and red pieces in front of him. It’s still hot, the steam rising and drifting into Keith's nose. It smells delicious. 

And there’s no way he's eating it. 

Even if he wants too he doubts he can keep anything down. Not after...Keith stubbornly turns his nose up away from the meal, glaring at the two who seem unfazed by his rejection. 

"It's not poisoned," Xiola chastise. "Our chef prepared it especially for you by Zarkon’s orders."

Keith frowns. Did they really expect to eat anything they give him? He just wants to return to his cell and curl up next to Lance and lose himself in his mind so he can pretend this is all just a fucking nightmare. 

Sighing, Kiola takes a spare spoon from the side and dips it into the poor recreation of human soup. She brings it to her mouth and takes a sip, grinning behind the utensil. "See? Harmless."

Keith tries not to flinch when the galra puts the spoon she used down. Well...if it isn't poisoned...he reaches hesitantly for another spoon, his cuffed restraints rattling as he moves. He clenches the silverware in his hand and mimics Kiola's action when she demonstrated that nothing was wrong. Bringing the first spoonful up, he sips experimentally.

It's...really good.

The second time he fishes out a chunk of red that could possible be meat. He takes it into his mouth and bites down. The food falls apart like butter between his teeth like butter as he chews. His stomach growls at the prospect of being filled and he complies, shoving spoonful after spoonful into his mouth without bothering to chew. Keith doesn’t stop, even as Kiola plants herself besides him. She looks almost as amused as her sister, who had moved somewhere behind him to retrieve something. Her grin though is mad almost as if she's smiling at a joke that wasn't made.

It's not long before Keith's plate is empty and he drops it into the bowl with a clatter. He feels nauseous, having eaten too fast but it's satisfying knowing he had food in there now. 

"I hope that was to your liking," Xiola chuckles softly. 

She comes over carrying a large covered platter. Dropping it onto the with a wide grin, Kiola pushes it in front of him after removing the bowl and placing it aside. The poor human starts to shake, a feeling of dread starting to surface. He knew better than to trust these two.

"I hope you saved room for dessert!" They both giggle as they place both their hands over the lid and lift it to reveal his final course.

Keith freezes, mouth falling open as he is greeted by Pidge’s severed head. Her eyes are gouged out much like Lance’s, empty cavities that lead into darkness. He stares mortified, his head slowly turning slowly to the bowl he had just eaten from. 

"She was quite the screamer," Xiola says patting the young girl's head. The action causes her mouth to open to reveal pastel looking circles nestled where her tongue should have been. "Little thing tried hacking into our system but we caught her in one of the air ducts."

"We used her organs to flavor the roux," Kiola inputs joyously. She gives a slow, twisted smile as she reaches into Keith's bowl to pluck out a piece of red meat still there. "I used her limbs after skinning her to add to the soup...she wouldn’t stop crying for someone to come save her." Suddenly her voice changes, mimicking the green lions voice to a T. " _ Please! Someone help me! It hurts, it hurts! Shiro, Lance ANYONE! _ God it was so fun making her squeal like a Glorogaz. Wanna know what we used for the desert?"

Keith can't take it. His stomach twists and he forces everything he consumed onto the table. He coughs violently, the sour taste burning at the back of his throat promoting him to vomit once again until nothing but stomach comes out.  _ I’m sorry Pidge, I'm so sorry. _

When he finishes, he feels something burning within him. Anger returns full force and he glares darkly at the two smiling witches.

" _ I'll kill you..." _ He snarls dangerously low. “ _ I'm going to rip off your  _ **_hideous_ ** _ galra faces and shove them down your fucking throats... _ **DO. YOU. HEAR. ME?!** "

The last words are punctuated as he grabs a sharp knife, waving it fast across the closest target, Xiola. She shrieks in surprise, her double quickly moving to slam Keith's head down into his own sickness. He's snarling, struggling against her to break free but she snaps his head back and cracks it against the hard wooden surface. He slumps, unable to scream because unconscious people didn't talk. 

"Ay, that fucking piece of shit!" Xiola swears, clenching her bleeding cheek.

"Oh don't be such a baby," Kiola says with a roll of her eyes. "You can easily heal that in seconds. Clean him and your face then send him to Emperor Zarkon."

Muttering darkly, the shorter Druid waves her hand, fixing the cut along her face and simultaneously cleaning the throw up. "Ugh, humans are so messy..."

Everything vanishes from the table and the two witches depart, leaving Keith in the hands of lower galra solders. They had done their part and it was only a matter of time before the red lion pilot broke. 

**To be Continued...**


	4. Cracked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oookay I am really enjoying myself here and goddamn it I don't know how to control myself. Three chapters in one week is a new record for me seriously. Anyways, enjoy! 
> 
> Chapter Warning: attempted noncon, (temporary)major character death

**Chapter Four**

"Tell me what you're thinking, red lion."  
  
It's a demand-cold and menacing.  
  
Keith frowns at the sudden question. What could he possibly say to the Emperor of the Galra's without causing himself another round of pain? A throb in his side reminds him of the last time he opened his mouth (a vicious kick to his rib made any snarky comment leave him to be replaced by  gasping air). The answer is simple...say nothing and hope to whatever space god is hearing that Zarkon didn't decided he wasn't going to take silence as an answer and hurt him anyways. Unfortunately, the purple skinned creature is glaring at him expectantly from where he stands by his massive window that makes viewing his fleet, already impatient and Keith swears under his breath.

He is expected to speak and if he doesn't pain will come swift and mercilessly.  
  
Gulping, the captured pilot of the Red Lion grimaces slightly under his intense gaze as he answers, "there's nothing to tell you." He says in a neutral tone. And it is the truth, aside from the fact he is thinking of ways of getting the hell off out of there. The way Zarkon looks at him makes something itch beneath his skin and he twitches, the urge to scratch intensify as the seconds ticked.

When he had awakened from his induced sleep after dinner, he had expected to be back in his cell, holding onto Lance. But instead he had seen Zarkon and realized he was in his throne room, chained down to the floor by the dias like a pet. A steel collar is around his throat, a chain leading down into the floor below him. It's long enough for him to stand but the weight is too heavy so he has to slump forward to keep pressure off. His arms are still bound in front of him, though this time they are tight against each other and a single chain connects them to the ground.

He's the perfect image of an obedient slave...if not for the death glare he has in his eyes.  
  
Humming, Zarkon turns his gaze towards the mass space before him. It's beautiful-the infinite beauty that they drift through, only blemished by the thousands of army ships floating along with it. He admires her unbiased nature and her gleaming stars and wishes for her to be painted with the blood of his enemies, which amuses him since he has already conquered more than half of the galaxy he has invaded. He turns fully to his captive paladin at the foot of his throne, his body prone and unable to move from Haggar's dark magic keeping him in place.

"Well...?" He prompts.  
  
The image of Pidge’s lifeless head makes him clench his teeth in livid rage. Oh, there are many things Keith wants to say at the moment: _go fuck yourself, drop dead, I wish I could tie your balls_ (if you even had any) _to the back of my lion and drag you around space behind me-_ all so appealing and more tempting to say as the seconds of silence tick on. Zarkon growls, snapping Keith out of his thoughts long enough to focus on his demand.  
  
"You...make me nervous," he finally admits ( **_lies._ ** He isn't nervous, he’s filled to the brim with hot, burning rage and it's ready to explode all over this smirking bastard).  
  
"Well, continue to be nervous paladin," Zarkon chuckles with a pleasant smile. Keith knows better than to trust a serpent with a grin like that, especially when said snake is holding his life in it's jaw. "I so enjoy that look of pure terror across your face after you discovered one of your _friends_ killed. Which reminds me..."  
  
He sounds awfully cheerful and Keith immediately brings his guard up as Zarkon takes the few steps towards him.  
  
"I think it's time to visit your princess my little paladin-Haggar had prepared something most... **entertaining.** "  
  
Keith doesn't like the sound of that.  
  
Not at all.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

It’s exactly as Keith imagines.

They enter a room connected to the throne room and Allura is lying on an operation table, already unconscious from the blood loss. Her dress is nothing but rags on her body and does little to hide the mangled flesh that Haggar performed on. He sobs and tries to reach for her but the witches magic keeps a firm grip on him not allowing him to move closer. She's nowhere in the room but Keith knows she's watching from somewhere.

"You...you fucking...low life...piece of shit..." Keith snarls under his breath. His fists clench in his handcuffs. He's shaking so hard his vision is beginning to blur. Why was this happening? What did he do to deserve this?! It wasn't far...why wasn't it fair?!

"You can save her you know..." Zarkon says from behind him. He places a cold hand over the young man's shoulder and grins at how he immediately tenses. Bending down just slightly, he presses his lips against Keith's ear, causing him to clinch at such an intimate action. "All you have to do is get her to tell me where the lions are and I'll let you both go."

Keith gasps, hope consuming him to replace his anger. "R-really?" He asks hesitantly. A voice whispers that it's a trap. A trick. It warns him that the galra is lying but Keith can't stop the feeling of relief. He could end it all, his torture, Allura’s pain. It was too late for Lance and Pidge but if this was an opportunity to save everyone else…

"Of course little paladin," Zarkon chuckles darkly. He straightens and pushes Keith towards her, Haggar's magic releasing the hold it had on him.

Keith stumbles forward, barely catching himself from colliding with the table. He stares down at the princess's peaceful face with unease. He could end this nightmare now. All he had to do was wake her up and get her to reveal where the lions were. They could walk out of here, possible get to the lions first before Zarkon knew what but him.

But was it worth if? Dread flashes through him and suddenly, he's jerking away from her motionless body. There's no way the demented emperor was going to let them walk out of his ship without some form of repercussion. He'd probably kill them once he got what he wanted, giving them no chance at escape. Zarkon watches him with a frightening calmness as Keith struggles with himself.

Slowly his lips turn upwards into a carnivorous grin and he walks around the table to stand on the other side. Reaching out, he caresses Allura’s still face with the back of his hand, almost affectionately if not for his hungry gaze and fanged smile. "Or if you prefer I can always drop her off onto a slave trader planet. I know plenty who would pay a hefty sum to have her.” As he speaks he slowly trails his fingers from her cheek to her neck, stopping mere inches above her breasts. "I imagine she would be quite an eager whore after a week of being used. She has the body for it, don't you think?"

“Don't touch her!" Keith screams at him, slapping his hand away in disgust. He's outraged to the point he wants to strike the galra in his smirking face but he refrains purely because Allura is the only thing separating them. He didn't want her in the crossfire if he decided to fuck the remaining breath he had now and leap over the table to choke the life out of Zarkon.

His shout stirs the young woman from her slumber. She groans, snapping Keith's attention to her in an instant. "K-Keith?" She says tiredly. "Keith what’s happening? Where am I"

"It's alright Allura!" Keith quickly responds, at her side once again, ignoring Zarkon's satisfied grin. "Everything’s fine-we're going to be fine."

He's a fucking liar.

Keith doesn't know if anything will be alright anymore but he has to reassure her that it will be. Allura frowns, head tilting to look at him. Her eyes are still there much to his relief but she looks confused, her mouth turned down deeper and her eyebrows drew together as her eyes roam the room. She tries to reach out for him but to her surprise, she can't move. Her eyes drift down towards her restraints and she shrieks in indignity.

"Wha-what is this?!" The princess demands, struggling desperately against the metal straps. "Keith explain to me this instant-what happened?!'

Shit.

How the hell is he going to explain that they were on Emperor Zarkon’s ship and two of her paladin's are dead? To his surprise, Zarkon doesn't make him say anything, since he was already talking before he could.

"It's a pleasure seeing you again Princess Allura," he begins mockingly. Allura’s head whips around so fast Keith cringes at the snap he hears.

"Zarkon..." Allura growls, eyes filling with hatred at the sight of the galra.

"Yes, me. Now before you interrupt with your tirade of how I'm evil and you’re going to stop me: I captured your ship, killed two members of voltron and have three more to torture and dismember so unless you want more blood spilt you will tell me where the lions are or I'll gut this one right here."

The look Allura and Keith give could have killed Zarkon on the spot if their combined glare had the power too. "I'll never tell you where they are," Allura all but seethes. Her tone is icy, the temperature dropping as she continues.  "They are all scattered like before and without me you'll never find them. Kill anymore of my paladins or friends you might as well kill me too since it would be pointless after that."

Keith stares horrified at her words. Was she serious? Didn't she see that this was a chance to escape? They could save Shiro, Hunk, Coran and themselves! How stupid was she (although not even a few moments ago he was thinking of declining the Galra's offer)?! Apparently Zarkon thought the same things because he starts laughing. The sound grants on the red paladin’s ears like sandpaper and it gives him a headache.

"I admire your resolve princess, but I have ways of making you talk," he sneers. "And some are very _unpleasant_ in the right amounts."

Allura glares, face darkening in rage. "Try me bastard," the woman snarls back.

Keith wants to laugh at the earth word that came out of her mouth. Probably something she heard Lance say on a whim and honestly, it was quite fitting.

Zarkon sighs, "pity...I did enjoy having your red paladin alive."

_Wait, what?_

The force of Zarkon’s knee in Keith's gut caught them both by surprise. The smaller male gasped in shock, unable to do anything beyond that as he is kicked into the wall. The sound of bones snapping echoed sickeningly in the air, and Keith screams. His body cripples to the floor unmoving. Blood streams from the open wound on head and from his mouth. Allura screams too, but his ears are ringing to loud for him to make out what she's saying. His vision blurs, gagging on the blood trying to fill his lungs and up his throat.

"Damn you!" Allura’s voice was twisted in anger. Her normally beautiful face is a mask of rage, teeth bared and ready to sink it into Zarkon's flesh.

"I won't kill him yet," Zarkon grabs Keith by the collar of his ragged clothes and pulls him until his feet are barely touching the ground. "First, I'm going to do to him what those slave traders do to break their property in and then I'm going to do the same to you princess while he watches. We'll see if you'll be in a more talkative move."

He had observed Keith's reaction when he had threatened to send Allura to the slave trader planet, Lekkon. It was hardly used, but with a little persuasion from him and his army, it wouldn't take much to have it up and running in no time. But the human's expression-the look of disgust that flashed over his face, violet eyes narrowed with discontent and a touch of fear, the galra leader’s curiosity was peaked. Humans had such odd facial expressions and it was obvious the subject of any sexual implications towards his leader was a touchy subject (no pun intended). He wondered how far he could go with the pale teen before broke to rescue him.

Keith hisses like a wild Falfrk, a dangerous race of cat like aliens with the strength of a galra and instincts of a killer. He snarls, kicks and tries to bite him despite the headache slowly pressing against the back of his skull. Using his left arm, Zarkon presses his forearm against his throat effectively pinning him against the wall.

Panic dominates the paladin’s senses like a blackhole. He’s breathing harshly, pushing desperately against the Galra's hold wanting, needing to get free. Zarkon chuckles darkly at his weak attempts but it only makes him fight harder. With his free hand, he unclaps the buckle to is armor, pulling the zipper down to expose his hardened flesh beneath the cloth. He'll admit, the red paladin is very attractive for a human and he feels no shame for his physical response, mostly induced by Keith’s struggles.

Through his poor attempt at trying to break free, Keith hears the sound of ripping cloth, exposing his lower half to the cool air and it fuels him like never before. "Let me go!" He chokes out. Desperate. Terrified. The galra leers at him with a burning that frightens the human.

That’s the only warning.

Keith arches, crying out in pain when he feels the galra's fingers thrusting and twisting inside him. Something warm slips down his legs and Keith knows he's bleeding from the sudden forced penetration. Zarkon's movements are cold and detached as he pushes his fingers deeper, internally enjoying the scream the human releases when he entered him unprepared.

Tears burn the corner of his eyes. He can see over the galra's shoulder directly at Allura struggling to get out of her restraints. Her eyes are wide in panic, sweat dripping from her forehead down from her excursion.

A vicious, brutal thrust forces him to tear his eyes away as a fresh wave of pain shoots up through his spine. Those hard, plunging strokes fire a pain that tore past any preconceived notion of the torture he experienced earlier, clouding his mind into a whirlpool of overloading emotions. It struck through his mind and left him reeling, tearing Keith's senses and the breathe he struggles to take through his whimpers that threatened to become screams.

Zarkon's fingers slide free of him, then he’s pushing Keith's thighs apart, the blunt end of his cock pressing against his bloody passage but goes no further.

"Tell me now princess..." Zarkon growls, his voice soft but seemed loud in the small room.

Allura’s eyes are glazed over with tears. Keith sounds like he is being tortured-the scent of blood assaulting her nose confirming what her eyes did not want to believe. Her lips tremble as the words spill from her before she can stop them. "The lions are on Planet Jacila now release him!" The Altean begs through a choked sob.

Keith stills with bated breath. At first Zarkon doesn't react to Allura's confession. He continues to hold him against the wall with no intentions of letting go, his hold strong. Then his face is twisting into a cruelness that has the human hyperventilating.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Princess Allura." He thrusts hard into the human as the same time he plunges his hand into the red paladin’s chest, directly above his heart.

The human's chokes, blood spewing from his mouth. There is an intense pressure and suddenly Zarkon is whipping his hand back pulling Keith's heart out leaving a gaping hole in it's place. The wet muscle is beating rapidly in the open air, still connected by the tubes that continued his life.

"Goodbye, paladin."

Zarkon crushes the heart in his hand, destroying it completely in his grasp.

Keith's eyes roll back into his head, black consuming his vision. He's plunged into the sweet embrace of darkness, Allura's sorrowful scream the last thing he hears before nothing...

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sorry but before you all freak stay tuned for the next chapter! It gets much better from here I swear!


	5. Lost and Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No excuse as to why this was late besides the fact it didn't want to be written. I swear everytime I went to type it just threw a bitch fit and kept leaving me. If it seems rushed it's because it is. I downplayed everyone being rescued cause I didn't want to focus on it. Next chapter is a wip but trust me, I have more on that then I did this lol. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews, kudos and faves. It makes me think people actually enjoy this angst crap XD

**Chapter Five**

Six hours.

That’s how long Shiro wanders through foreign territory alone and defenseless. Well, not as defenseless as he believed since he is sitting in the black lion’s pilot seat but that isn’t the issue. The trouble is, his communication is shot to hell and he has no way to contact Allura. So he wanders aimlessly hoping to get a strong enough signal to send out a distress call. With each cautious step he can hear Black Lion's gears grind together in an unpleasant way, indicating something or rather a few parts, needed to be oiled or fixed. If he doesn't get help soon he feared his lion wasn't going to pull through.

The planet he crashed on is unfamiliar with it's glowing amber plants and desert like appearance. It would have be beautiful to him: the oddly shaped forage twisting and wrapping around each other to form nests and speckled pink and green sand that glittered under the dark maroon sun. If he took the time to actually observe the land Shiro would have probably been so engrossed he wouldn't want to leave. But he's too agitated. Intent on finding something-anything-that would prove useful in contacting Allura and her ship.

Behind him red lion follows lethargically, it's movements slow and almost deliberate as it trailed him. Shiro understands why: Keith was nowhere to be found inside or out of his lion. When he had scanned the area (the only thing working out of the small list of things the lions were still able to do) after discovering the missing paladin he didn’t see any heat signal indicating any form of life besides himself.

At first he assumed Keith was just further away after being tossed from his lion, but after combing the barren land he found no trace of the red paladin. It was as if he wasn't there to begin with. It left an unsettling feeling in his guy and with a little coaxing from him to get the massive mechanical cat to drop its shield, they journeyed together through the land in hopes of finding someone that could help.

Shiro rests black lion near a small riverbed of flowing light orange water and pulls up his communication screen with unease. Again, Shiro is met with nothing but grey and black snowflakes with crackling waves. He hears red lion plop onto the ground with a crash but he knows it's okay from the irritated growl it lets out, black lion responding in kind to it's brothers agitation.

Sighing loudly, the black paladin desperately tries not to scream in frustration at his poor luck and looks up towards the sky. His eyes dart across every bright blue twinkle that illuminates and to his surprise, catches the familiar glow of a swirling blue correct ripping open the night sky in a beautiful contest to it's blackness.

"Shiro are you there?" Allura's voice breaks through the silence. Her words are overtaken by static but Shiro made out what she said with ease.

"Yeah I'm here with the black and red lion," he responds. He can't hide the relief he feels in his voice and shortly after a tractor beam shots from the Altean Castle-Ship to swoop them both up.

The moment he knows he is safe he exists his lion with urgency to meet Allura in the command center. Keith and the paladin’s were still missing

**XXXXXXXXX**

Hunk groans in pleasure, the soft red gope his fellow Saryian's laid out before him as a welcoming gift for his arrival. The timid inhabitants of the planet were very gracious to his plight after he had crashed landed only hours ago in the middle of a ceremonial banquet to one of their deities and lavished him with a bounty of rich drinks and decadent meals. They healed his wounds, gave him fresh clothes and even fixed up the yellow lion, which was currently sitting silently under a tree, encased in it's blue shield.

The larger teen grins as pink and green skinned aliens dance around the golden floors, their bodies swaying and moving to the joyus tune played from odd machines that passed as instruments. He sits besides the king, a withered, old but gentle eyed man whom had requested he join him by his side.

But he knows he can’t stay long. As fun as this party was, Hunk felt he still had a duty as a Voltron Paladin to try and contact Allura. He quickly finishes his plate, thanking the king gratefully before excusing himself from the festivities to climb into the Yellow Lion. After combing through a status report that flashed over the holographic screen, the large teen brought up a connection to Allura. To his surprise she was already floating nearby and he brought the coordinates up.

**XXXXXXXXX**

“Pidge, do you have the coordinates for Lance?”

“Yes Allura, I’m punching them in as I speak.”

**XXXXXXXXX**

Lance stares out into the endless body of water thinking about nothing and feeling even less. Everything seems so different now that he is alone. The universe is so clear to him in this moment it makes him dizzy staring out into the expanse space above his head. In this solitude, he can think about his home on earth. His mother and father. His older and younger siblings. Sometimes, he can even hear the melodious voice of his eldest sister in his ear when he’s alone, remembering the days when he was a child. The wind whispering against his curls and disheveling his short hair.

 _“_ _Siempre he dicho que el universo era como un libro : puede haber un número de páginas después de la portada, pero la historia nunca llega a su fin_ _,” she would say as she tucked him into bed. “_ _Sólo se comienza una nueva historia después de la primera se ha completado_ _…”(1)_

He looks up at the night sky, his eyes closing against the gentle breeze. Lance imagines it’s his sister's fingers running through his hair, her words carrying him off into a dreamless sleep.

 _“_ _Pero sabes , hermanito , una historia no puede existir si nadie lo escribe . Entonces es un sueño que siempre irá a la deriva hasta que se reconoció_ _.”(2)_

Lance always compared everything to a story: his life, the world. He wants to know all the outcomes of the universe. For every life, death, event, existance he wanted more than just to know it all. He wants to fill the emptiness of being alone. To live in a place where evil hands couldn’t touch and make him question his existence.

He questions it now: his life.

There is no doubt in his mind he could do incredible things now that he is a Voltron Paladin. He can protect those who need it more now that Zarkon’s threat looms over the entire universe. Inside though, the treacherous thought of self doubt ebbing its way into his mind, whispers that he can’t do it. To put down his arms and just go home. And he should.

They lost Keith.

Their red paladin gone in a sea of black and purple amongst the stars somewhere out of reach and Lance is fucking angry because there was nothing they could do. To him, Keith’s story has ended. Red lion is fine though. A bit banged up from its fight with the Galra leader but was doing well...if not a but more aggressive if anyone approached to close. It probably misses it’s pilot as much as everyone else is. Allura had insisted big red only acted that way because it knew Keith was still alive. Still breathing somewhere out there.

Lance tightens his hand into a fist and his eyes held a determination like he never felt before in his life. They were going to find him and when they did, he is going to tear the spine out of the lowlife that kept him from them.

**XXXXXXXXX**

They gathered in the control room.

Allura is crestfallen, eyes wide as she stares at the beeping red dot flashing across the celestial holographic map. Everyone is there glaring with her, wishing beyond hope the map was malfunctioning.

Lance feels his teeth crack from the force he clenches them with.

There is no doubt in his mind that he knew exactly where Keith was.

He just wishes they didn’t have to go back anywhere near the Galra Empire again.

 

**To be Continued...**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> (1). I always said the universe was like a book: there may be a number of pages after the cover, but the story never really comes to an end,” “It only starts a new story after the first is completed.  
> (2) But you know, little brother, a story can’t exist if no one writes it down. Then it's a dream that will forever drift until it’s acknowledged


	6. Fight or Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not going to lie, I spent forever on this chapter because this is the moment you all been waiting for...Operation Rescue Mullet Head is a go! I've also been working on two other Klance stories which are sort of more lighthearted and completely AU...also another one that is purely Klance smut cause I can't help but be in love with these two dorks...
> 
> Do you think the producers every imagined when they came out with the show there was going to be a lot of Kalnce shipping...?
> 
> Anyways, enjoy. Next chapter if I plan it right will be out next week since I'm only editing it now (which apparently takes fucking forever lmfao)

**Chapter Six**

_The knife is hot against his skin._

_Pressing deep, the Galra insignia sears away the flesh with a hellish red and orange glow._ _The tip of the blade pierces through Keith’s body, skin peeling apart with ease under the slashing strokes across his spine in a smooth, perfect curve. It’s as if they had done this many times before- creating such a sinister yet beautiful mark to forever be seen on their enemy.  Hands move gracefully across the unmarked surface, never pausing to break the intricate design. And Keith can do nothing else but scream because that's all he is able to do as it penetrates him. He can't move from the unforgiving position he's in._

_Not even to relieve the pain, if only for a moment._

_Zarkon cut down faster._

_Harder._

_Marking a permanent scar across his back that Keith knows will never fade._

_Enoughenoughenoughpleasestopfuckitburns._

_Blood slides out from his wounds onto the table and the floor, filling the air with it's disgusting copper and burnt scent. The Galra keeps cutting, almost as if he’s trying to carve out a chunk of Keith’s skin with his movements. The slicing stops though giving the paladin a brief moment of peace. A short pause only to move to do the same again on a different section. Another patch unmarked that needed to be rectified._

_Keith screams sound so far away in his ears but he knows he's begging through his cries. Praying. Pleading for mercy through his tears. Someone laughs. Cold and savage as they press it deeper and deeper. He feels something burst under the pressure and he can’t breathe. Mouth open wide, locked in a silent scream as an intense pain spreads through him from behind his spine, Keith wills himself to pass out but each time the darkness clouds the corner of his vision he’s brought back from the depths by a splash of freezing water before the torture continues._

_“Look at you...so pitiful...do you want it to stop little one? Do you want me to end this now?"_

_Keith is sobbing_ **_yes_ ** _over and over until his lungs give out and he can’t take any more air in. He doesn't care how utterly pathetic he sounds weeping into the table. Doesn't care that it jars his injuries. He's stripped him of any dignity he had left, exposed and vulnerable to the Galra's whim._

 _He wishes he could stop the breath he has and just_ **_be still_ ** _. To fall into the sweet bliss of oblivion never to wake up again. The red paladin will gladly give into the siren call of death if it meant he didn’t have to go through this torture._

_Finally, the hot knife is pulled away._

_Zarkon drops the blood stained steel onto the table where Keith lays stretched out, the clattering echoing in the silent room, save for his harsh pants. He steps back to admire his work. The Galra Empire seal is now permanently sunk in the human’s skin, angry-bleeding droplets of red run out from the sections that weren’t burned away, spilling over his pale back. He leans forward, his snake-like tongue slipping out from between his lips to taste the liquid fluid of his enemy before pulling away and laughing harshly._

_"You belong to_ **_my_ ** _empire now, paladin."_

A blaring alarm sounds, ripping Keith from his hellish nightmare. Sweat drips from his forehead down to the back of his neck and he jerks up into an upright position, clenching the decapitated head of Lance closely to his chest as a thundering crash rocks the ship. He doesn’t remember falling asleep. His last memory, though hazy, was of a burning heat like fire ripping into his back and rendering him in a state of panic to the point of causing a blackout. There were fragmented pieces of other events but it passes quickly through his brain he can't latch onto them long enough to remember any significant details. Keith takes in a shaky breath, attempting to make sense of what was happening.

Red lights flash above him, illuminating his prison in an eerie black and maroon. Something or someone is attacking and they are attacking hard. The spacecraft rocks violently underneath him from a monstrous explosion and Keith grabs the wall, fearing the entire warship was going to fall out of the sky and crash somewhere desolate. He won't be sorry if it does.

Almost as if it was made of glass, the force from another eruption following the first blast cracks the prison door, evaporating it into nothing but particles.

Keith can't help but stare because it's a way out.

He can finally escape this hellhole...

More explosions echo throughout the small room with such a ear shattering velocity his head spins and his visions blurs. Keith clenches his teeth, willing everything to just stop. There’s a lot of yelling too: shrieks of pain or agony he can’t distinguish roaring into his ears making it hard to think. Galra soldiers run past his cell, barking orders to each other to capture the intruders that infiltrated their ship. They don't stop to notice him or that his cell was open. A small blessing under the circumstances however the red paladin doesn't move from his spot.

What was the point of escaping when there was no guarantee he was going to find his team? He'll be searching the entire galaxy until he either starved or killed by something deadlier than Zarkon (if a being even existed for that matter but Keith isn't about to risk his short existence to test that theory).

Someone calls his name above the noise and he presses his face against Lance’s matted hair, wishing the voices to just go _away_.

Why won’t they just stop and leave him alone?  
  
He’s shaking.

 **_Terrified_ **.

Scared of what Zarkon will do to Allura and the rest of the Voltron crew if he messes up. Scared of what will happen to him if he takes one step out of line and reacts to the small spark of hope that ignited in his chest at such a familiar tone. His back throbs in a perfect reminder of what happens when he isn't a good boy. It forces him to curl into an even tighter ball, his body shaking violently as the fear of Zarkon or one of his Druids coming to take him.

Keith doesn't want to see Xiola or Kiola. Not after the first meeting.

Heavy footsteps approach, the sound concealed by the gunfire from outside but nevertheless Keith's hearing catches it. There are a set of two and they're moving swiftly towards him.

His pulse quickens.

Keith latches onto the only semblance of peace in his arms as an anchor.  It's the twin Druids. He knows it. They were coming to drag him out like they had done before and force him to partake in another meal, most likely another one of his teammates without a care to the fact there is a battle going on.

The pale teen sobs softly. _Please don't make me. Please don't make me!_ He knows he won't be able to stand the sight of another lavish 'banquet’.

“Did anyone check the prisoner helm?” A voice pierces through his thoughts.

He knows better.

It’s nothing but an hallucination brought on by the lack of sleep, food he refused to eat and torture his body endured for days on end. He sobs softly. That isn't Lance. He's dead-gone. His life snuffed out with no chance to fight back.

Keith whimpers, slight tremors running up and down causing him to shake. Oh so familiar and warm-he should have been happy, over the moon with joy at the soft voice of the blue paladin but all he feels in growing terror.

“Shh…I hear something,” another whispers. That tugs viciously against his heartstrings because there was no way it’s Pidge with Lance, sneaking around Zarkon’s fucking ship. Either the twin Druids were that sadistically cruel or he has really lost his mind.

The owners of the voices step into his cell, and he scrambles into a corner, tripping over the shackles attached to his ankles that keep him against the stone ground. It’s a dream; he knows that now because how can Pidge and Lance be here? Alive and breathing staring down at him uncomfortably and hesitant. He covers his mouth, turning his back to them. Fearing that maybe it wasn’t them at all but rather Galra’s sent to play with his mind and make him believe they are there only to inflict more pain under their leaders order, he doesn't want to look at them.

“No! No you aren’t real! You can’t be real!” Keith screams hysterically, pushing himself against the corner of the wall. He refuses to see the imposters. He doesn’t want to get sucked into this game of lies and deceit after everything he’s been through. Pidge’s severed head against the silver platter, mouth full of pastel treats flashes through his mind making him nauseous. The fact he partook in eating her...Keith sure as hell didn't want to turn and face that ugly truth after fighting hard to push it out if his thoughts.

“Shit, Lance what do we do?” Imposter Pidge asks from besides the double of Lance.

Lance is silent for a long five minutes, contemplating his limited options, before he answers. When he walked through the dissolved barrier separating Keith from them, he had honestly expected some form of relief and joy that they had found him after so many weeks of searching. Had expected him to smirk and insult him for taking so long in rescuing his mullethead.

The blue pilot had not expected the red paladin to shy away from them and start screaming they weren't real. That’s a red flag in the blue paladin’s mind. He needs to be cautious since he has no idea what is going through the others mind and risk of injury was high.

“Stand watch while I try and calm him down," he says slowly as he inches closer. "He may lash out if we aren’t careful and you may not be able to hold him down if he becomes violent..."

She opens her mouth to protest but a sharp glare from him stops the words from leaving her. Lance knows she’s a capable fighter despite her small size, but the way Keith is acting, he fears he could cause significant damage to either one and he didn't think he was going to appreciate being knocked unconscious, unaware of what was going on around him. They also need someone to fly their ass out of there and he doubts green lion would let him take a seat.

One pair of footsteps approaches him and Keith pushes himself further against the wall.  A sudden warmth envelops his back as the taller imposter pulls him against a cold chest, pressing against him and trying to get him to turn him around. He thrashes against the lookalike, eyes widening at the blue paladin hovering behind him.

He’s hyperventilating.

Keith can’t breathe.

It’s too much.

Zarkon has finally done something truly dispicable to make him lose whatever remaining sanity he had left.  Thick tears pour from behind his closed eyelids and trickled down his cheeks in a stream of disbelief.

 _It’s a trap_. His thoughts rage.

A trick.

He refuses to fall for it and let Zarkon take his only reality away.

_"Let me go!"_

Keith is momentarily surprised by the sound of his own voice. He hardly recognizes the horse, broken words that are his own when he yelled.

“Keith, calm down!” Lance yells over the thundering sound of guns firing and commands from Allura in his ear. He shuts off the connection with irritation abruptly, leaving Pidge with the task of keeping up to date with the situation. Another explosion rocks Zarkon’s ship making them both topple over from the force, the shorter male falling on top of the blue paladin with a startled yelp. There a brief struggle but Keith takes the presented opportunity to rack his nails against Lance's uniform trying to tear at his face and neck to escape.

"You won't trick me!" He snarls, determined to rip off the human mask and reveal the trick to his own eyes.

Lance hisses when Keith drags across his exposed chin, leaving an irritated red streak in it's wake. "Shit! I said calm the fuck down mullet head!"

He grabs Keith’s flailing hands before they could continue to try and claw his face off. He wraps his arms around the shaking paladin, trapping his arms against his body to keep them in place. Keith snarls savagely, twisting in the hold. In his fight for freedom something slides from between them to the ground, bouncing a few inches away. The sound draws Lance's attention to it. Electric blue eyes look down towards the object and his brows furrow in confusion before he gags, bile rising and threatening to escape.

He's starting back at himself. A pale reflection of his healthy face but it isn't attached to anything. The head, already in a state of decay, pieces of rotting flesh peeling away from the cheek exposing green-yellowish muscle beneath. His double had no eyes and it's mouth hung open, frozen in a silent scream of horror. Lance swallows hard. He wants to vomit at the sight, his stomach churning and twisting into knots at the sickening sight of his own fucking head looking back at him.

No.

He can’t get distracted no matter how much he wants to throw Keith off of him and run from the sight of his own decapitated head. He needs to focus. The body in his arm twitches, pulling his thoughts away back to the other.

“Keith, look at me goddamn you!” he hisses in his ear. Lance lets him go only to grab his face between his hands and force his head up to look at him when Keith makes no move to do so. He still isn't looking though. His eyes are downcast, sheilded behind his darkened bangs. Irritation rears it's head and Lance is in no mood to deal with this bullshit, not when he didn't know how long they had. "Fucking look at me already!"

With a hesitation of a curious child, Keith peers from behind his bangs at his instructions. Lance can see the wariness in his eyes but there isn't time to address whatever is going through his head.

“Listen very carefully Keith.” The words are stressed from between his clenched teeth. “That thing on the ground isn’t me. I’m right in front of you, alive and fucking breathing ya hear me mullet head?! I'm. Right. Here."

The words wash over Keith's hazed mind like a tsunami. This only makes Keith cry harder. He doesn’t want to believe after all these months-after all the weeks spent keeping hold of any dream that the Voltron team would come and rescue him, they were actually there in front of him.

Real.

Unconsciously he crawls into the other teen’s lap until he is straddling him between his thighs. Even if it's a figment of his imagination, even if the moment he pulls away this vision fades, he'll take whatever comfort he could get from the double before it's viciously stripped from him. Even if it’s another cruel torment Zarkon concocted, he wants to believe with all his heart the being in front of him is Lance and he and Pidge had came to take him away.

Lance makes an incredulous sound in the back of his throat when Keith encircled his arms around his waist and presses into his uniform with a needy sound. His face lights up, a blush across his cheeks as the red pilot uses him as a teddy bear. _Okay...this just got ten times disturbing..._ he thinks. He has no idea what to do and he looks back to the green paladin for help.

Pidge is speaking into her comm in a quiet, urgent tone, unaware of what it happening behind her as she guards the entrance to Keith’s prison. She does pause in her conversation to turn and check on them and the sight makes her freeze. A small mischievous smile stretches over her lips despite the situation. She would have loved to tease the paladin about the precarious position he found himself in but Lance is saved by Allura’s sharp voice that she couldn't hold off the flying attack ships any longer and they needed to hurry up with their search.

“Lance, we gotta go!” She says instead of the joke at the tip of her tongue. Another bomb she set goes off down the corridor sending a heavy cloud of dust to envelope the hallway, a blinding cloak if any Galra soliders headed their way while they escaped.

Lance knew they don’t have much time. Ignoring the purple, almost black bruises across his neck, suspiciously in the shape of a handprint, he eases Keith back to sit up. The olive skin teen stamps down the vicious urge to fuck his sense of morals and go search out the _fucking piece of shit_ galra that dared put their hands on him but it would have to wait until after they got Keith off this godforsaken aircraft. He hoists the other smaller male up from behind his knees, holding him bridal style. Keith clings to him  like a safety blanket, allowing Lance to carry him without a fight. It won't matter in a couple of minutes when the druids reveal their illusion anyways.

Lance quickly follows behind Pidge as she leads them out towards their escape. Shiro and Hunk have the Galra troops distracted enough to allow them to get in and out as fast as possible but for how long was a toss in the air. With the smaller paladin in front of him, Lance tries to keep up with her fast footsteps as they weave through the catastrophic rubble. It should have been difficult with him holding a second body but Keith barely feels like anything.

Again, Lance thinks up some colorful ways of eradicating the Galra trash to himself for putting the red paladin through wsjtever torture that resulted in him weighing less than an anorexic chick.

They are almost to the head of green lion. It's through one of the walls, it's jaw open and waiting to swallow them into the safety of it's cockpit. Without a doubt either Hunk or Shiro was protecting it's flank from getting damaged along with trying to aid in defending the castle-ship.

"Where do you two think you're going?!" Twin voices scream from somewhere to their left.

Lance barely has the foresight to dodge the yellow blast of energy aimed for his head but somehow manages without dropping Keith as he skids to a stop and bows his body backwards awkwardly hovering in a bent position just as the blast shoots past him. It slams into the opposite wall creating a decent sized hole in the seemingly impenetrable surface where his head used to be. He straightens just in time to maneuver out of range from another one, Keith clenching onto him harder. Pidge stops, her hand darting at her side to extract her Bayard. It transforms instantly into her weapon as two strangly dressed Druids come into view from behind smoking equipment.

"Sister, why are they taking Emperor Zarkon’s toy?" The one on the left with pink hair asks her companion in a enraged tone.

"Who knows. But they should return him quickly before he becomes really upset," the other one with blue hair replies smoothly.

Lance feels Keith tense at the sugar-honey words and notes the soft tremors running through his body. Blue eyes harden in anger at the sight of them, clenching the red paladin closer. He can only assume they are part of the 'Let's torture Keith' cludhouse with how Keith reacted to their voices alone.

“I dare you to come over here and take him from us!” Pidge spits, the tip of her blade taser sparking up at her words.

The twins share a look before they shoot across the short distance towards them without a word. A long blade hidden within Xiola’s sleeves extends out as her sister leaps into the air, a purple scythe manifesting into her hands. They attack hard and fast. Pidge brings her gauntlet-mounted energy shield up to stop the strike of the sword from hitting her neck, the sharp tip meeting the barrier igniting a spark of green. Lance has no choice but to drop Keith onto the floor, muttering a quick apology, so he can bring up his own shield to block Kiola’s well placed aim to his legs.

Faster and faster, the two Druids attack each of them in short burst, blurring until they could barely be seen in a haze of blue and pink. Lance and Pidge can't make out where they were coming from as they pitifully block their weapons to the best of their ability. Kiola appears like a phantom behind the blue pilot, swinging the scythe powered by the Druid’s magic down at an arch to the back of his neck. If it wasn’t for the protective thick layer across his throat he would have been recreating the all too real bodiless figurehead he had seen in Keith’s cell. Raising his hand, Lance drops his shield, only to pivot his heel and swing around to meet her second attack with his rifle as a blockade.

“My! Aren’t you a cutie!” Kiola giggles insanely. She had leaned in close, her face mere centimeters from Lance’s to examine him further. "You're much more livelier than that dead corpse that parasite always clung to. I wonder if he’ll cling to the real thing just as desperately as he did that fake!"

Lance shivers in revulsion and fires an energy blast in her direction. If anything he doesn't want to be reminded of the severed head he encountered in Keith's cell. It didn't help the galra was smiling either.

A few feet away, Pidge isn’t doing any better with her opponent. She swings her bayard towards Xiola like a propeller, the Druid easily swatting it away as if it was an annoying fly.  Xiola comes at her with lightening speed, beating the smaller paladin in the gut with the blunt end of her sword before jerking back to ram the tip into her sheild.

"You should have seen his face when we told him what we did you," Xiola chimes in loud enough for Lance to hear even though she’s focused on Pidge. Her face is a light with sadistic pleasure, her yellow eyes seemingly brighter in the darkened space. She vanishes from Pidge’s sight, reappearing so she’s now behind her. Leaning down to brush her lips against her helmet Xiola whispers, "you were quite a feast to the starving boy. Didn't even realize he consumed every bit of your disgusting human flesh!"

The small paladin’s face contorts momentarily into horror before disgust and rage sweeps across her form. "Shut the fuck up!" She screeches back in fury to her words.

Pidge swings around unexpectedly, catching Xiola's robes on the end of her triangle tip. An electric charge surges on contact, causing an ungodly screech of pain to emit from the Druid. She stumbles back, gasping as short, bolts shoot in ripples throughout her body. The paladin runs at her with the ferocity of an angry cat, taking the opening before Xiola could regain the upperhand.

One, two, three hits. Pidge brings up her shield when Xiola disposes her sword to instead unleash her magic upon the Voltron paladin mercilessly. The small paladin refuses to be pushed back even as Xiola's attacks are relentless. She manages to break away from the onslaught and as the Druid rushes towards her, she meets her halfway headon, ready to put the bitch in her place for messing with one of her teammates.

Two strikes into Xiola's midsection, one against her neck. Pidge keeps her Bayard pressed against her collarbone until the Druid convulsions and goes still, dropping to the ground unconscious. After making sure she was down for the count, the techgeek turns to Lance but he's too engaged in his own fight to pay her any attention.

He looked to be in deep concentration, his focus locked on the other twin Druid. Seeing she would just get in the way (well, more like they were slowly inching towards Keith's unmoving body) she runs to check up on their red paladin. To her surprise, he somehow managed to pass out from when Lance had dropped him given the bump slowly forming when his forehead made contact with the floor.

 _When we get out of here I'm going to have to explain the meaning of self-restraint._ Pidge thinks frowning in disapproval.

Kiola's eyes narrow into slits at the sight of her sisters unconscious body, small tendrils of smoke wisping into the air around her as her anger grew. "You'll pay for that," she hisses dangerously. "I can't wait to rip you both to pieces and present your  bloody corpses to my Emperor!"

"Well you started it when you kidnapped Keith!"  Lance snarls back. "And I wanna see you try, you bitch!'

Wrong thing to say.

The Druid shrieks in rage, launching herself towards the blue pladin in fury. She fights like a savage beast catching Lance off guard. Throwing out her scythe in an arc, aimed to sever Lance's head from his torso, he jumps away just as the point grazed against his helmet. The scythe imbeds itself into the floor, stuck. Kiola swears violently in Galric as she struggles to pull her weapon from ground.

Using his temporary opening Lance plants a foot on the back and runs up the curve, damn the fact he just probably defied all laws of gravity as he did it. Raising his rifle, he takes an aim towards Kiola's head. She leaps back just as the blue stream of energy nearly takes half her face off. The paladin's eyes narrow, calculating the Druid's aggressive behavior with intensity. This piece of trash is one of the galra that tortured his friend-yes friend-and made him believe he was dead.

There is going to be no mercy from him.

Lance leaps off the scythe, skidding onto his side underneath the blade of a sword Kiola manifested into her hands, similar to what Xiola used in Pidge's fight. He quickly gains his footing, twisting around Kiola to get behind her. Three shots in quick succession, each connecting to the Druid's unprotected back.

Kiola stumbles, spitting mad at the fact a disgusting creature such as him managed to strike her. "I'm going to KILL YOU!"

"Fuck yeah! Show that galra she can't mess with us!" Pidge cheers encouragingly from the sideline.

Kiola rounds on her, baring her teeth in disgust. "You're next! This time I'm going to shove your putrid meat down that human's throat and watch him gag on it!"

"Hey! I'm your opponent!" Lance cuts in loudly.

The Druid growls low in her throat turning back to the blue paladin. Suddenly, a thunderous boom blows out the right side of the wall sending pieces of metal and debris flying. Kiola is thrown across the hall from the blast, slamming into a piece of broken pillars that had crumbled after the first initial attack bomb. Yellow lion’s bazooka cannon is in place where the wall used to be but luckily it didn't allow any space to suction them out into the abyss.  

“What's taking so long?!" Hunk demands over their comms. "Shiro and Allura can’t hold off the battleships any longer!'

"We got him!" Lance screams, deactivating his Bayard to lift Keith back into his arms. He's disappointed he isn't able to put one of the Druids down however that's not a priority (sadly).

He follows the green paladin into her lion before it slams its jaws shut and pulls away without a second glance to the Galra. Lance knows for a fact the taller one, Kiola, was going to skin him alive if they ever met again.

Pidge takes the pilot seat and activates the invisibility feature on her lion, boosting the thrusters sending them catapulting towards Allura's ship.Both the yellow and black lion follow close behind and the instant all the lions are safely inside, the Altean princess activates the wormhole to get them to safety. She isn't going to take any chances this time. Not with her paladin's.

For one brief, heartstopping moment, Lance fears they weren't going to make it as Allura activated a wormhole to get them the hell out. His grip is shaky as he holds onto Keith like a lifeline, adrenaline still pulsing through his veins from his brief fight with one of the Galra Witches. He had only known one and that was the Druid leader, Haggar. It nearly made his heart leap out of his chest when not one, but two Druids stopped them from escaping. Honestly, he dreaded they weren't going to make it out alive.

But here they are.

Still in one peace.

The blue paladin takes a peek towards Keith, his features softening at the lax expression that greets his eyes. At a glance, the red pilot didn't look like he was tortured, despite the small visible clues around his throat and arms. Still...watching him sleep peacefully stirs something dark and ugly in Lance and he instinctively grits his teeth with barely suppressed anger that strangles his heart nearly blinding him. There's nothing he'd rather do than turn the fucking ship around so he can go back and _beat the crap_ out of the twin Druids and _leave them to fucking rot_. He's beyond the human compression of pissed and it’s disappointing he can't take his frustrations out on anything worth hitting (he didn't think Pidge or Green Lion would appreciate a dent anywhere).

The tension in his body never lessens even as the beautiful swirling blue vortex swallows them and spits them safely out into a galaxy millions of miles away from Zarkon and his army, this time without Haggar's magic to fuck it all up. Even still, he refuses to let Keith go because there’s a small part of him that’s terrified it's all a dream. That the person in his arms was going to disappear and the nightmare would reveal itself in a horrible reality that they never actually found Keith.

Deep down, the logical side knows he's not fake. From the warmth of Keith's skin. To the soft exhale as he breathed. The paladin nestled against his chest is real and alive and not in one of the million scenarios Lance pictured finding him in when they came to rescue him.

Lance feels tears well up in the corner of his eyes and he buries his face into the black hair, inhaling deeply before letting it out in a choked sob of relief.

For the first time since discovering Keith was missing, Lance cries, ignoring the sound of the lions cockpit opening to allow the rest of the Voltron paladin's inside. He doesn't budge from his spot besides the pilot chair, even as Allura tries to coax him into letting Keith go to get treatment.

They found him.

They finally found him.

And he is damned if anyone was going to take him again.

 

**To be Continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note! If you aren't a fan of OCs don't worry! They won't be here for long and their only role is to move the story along. They are in no way going to overshadow any of the main characters whatsoever! I am actually not a huge fan of OCs and let me be honest I pulled these characters straight out of my ass at the last minute so little...anyways
> 
> Please review guys! It does motivate me to type faster lol


	7. Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, after nearly two months I'm sort of back with updates (notice the slightly longer chapter? Lol). What I mean is, for those who don't know after ny uncle's death I've been spending time helping my nana and great grandma through it. Now that they are semi-back to normal (about a week ago) I began working on this story. Problem is, now I have pink eye, a respiratory infection and chest pain that makes it hard to sleep and puts me in a foul mood. 
> 
> With that being said updates will be every other Sunday until I find strength to post regularly. 
> 
> Also, even though I didn't reply to most comments I want to thank you all for your kind words and support. This chapter is dedicated to all of you for sticking with me so far despite my slow updates.

**Chapter Seven**

There is a tension in the air so thick Coran feels like he could cut it with a blade. He glares at the screens around him, his teeth biting nervously into his gloves as he stands and just observes because he honestly doesn't know what to do with his hands since he already wrung them sore earlier on. It's nerve wracking not being able to do anything while the paladin’s are all avoiding each other like a bad Hyrian infection (the Hyrian's form of an Earth cold but most cases ended in being thrown into a pit of fire to avoid contaminating the healthy).

It definitely doesn't help that one of their own is currently in stasis mode trying to heal damage that no one could see.

"How long do you think it’s been?" He asks the Altean princess who appears to be trying to create a trench in the floor with her pacing behind him. They’re in the command center, monitoring the holographic screens which display each paladin doing something-nothing out of the ordinary but Allura has become so disconcerted with the molasses slow result of Keith's recovery progress she had given up viewing to walk her frustrations out...which didn't appear to make her any calmer by the looks of it. 

Her hair is frizzy from not brushing it for a few days, the ends sticking up on the top of her head like someone had threw her into a wind machine and cranked it into overdrive. There's deep bags under her eyes-the only indication of the little sleep she has been getting and the orange beard Altean doesn't even want to know how long it's been since she took a soak in some calming bath waters.

Coran is a little surprised she's still standing after all this time and he wants to comment on the state of her unhealthy habit, but right now his current attention is on both Pidge and Lance of whom he is most concerned about. Since they had informed everyone about their encounter with the twin Druids, they had been more or less withdrawn than usual.

Lance is a little more withdrawn than Pidge if the male Altean is being honest with himself.

The blue paladin barely ate, he skipping regular training sessions and on more occasions snaps at minor things that wouldn’t have normally upset him. Every joke, sarcastic remark and good natured humor is thrown out to be replaced with biting remarks, violent outbursts and cold stares. He shut them all out, including Allura when she had tried and failed to get him to talk two days after their successful mission. Coran notices he spends more time in the cryopod chambers than his own room now, sitting next to Keith's unmoving form with a paper and pen.

He suspects Lance is deeply affected from when he recovered Keith from the Galra but didn't know how to properly let out his emotions. He seemed distant during conversions and always after finishing a meal or training he rushed off to sit besides Keith, muttering that one of these days his 'mullet-head' was going to pay him back for keeping him awake all night, worrying about him.

Once Allura had safely landed on a friendly planet, they found the young man hunched over cradling him like a small child. When Lance hadn't moved to do as the princess commanded to let Keith go, the black paladin had tried to pry the figure away from him. Not only had he nearly bit the galratech arm when the voltron leader attempted the first six times to remove the unconscious body, the Latino lashed out and managed to make a small dent with his teeth against the softer material above his upper arm to make the black paladin give up.

It was only after Pidge had to shock him did he finally let go.

Thinking of Pidge, she's almost in the same state Lance is in. She had locked herself in her room for hours after giving her report of the state they had found Keith in, speaking in a monotonic tone before disappearing behind her door. Like Lance, she became less social with the team, only speaking when addressed with little words, never giving input unless specifically asked and hardly felt like eating either. At times she even became violent and had lashed out viciously at Coran himself when he had asked what was wrong. Not even Shiro could calm her down but after a while they left her to her own devices.

It was a group decision (as in Hunk, Allura, Shiro and Coran) to leave them be until they deemed it necessary to come to them. Unfortunately, because two of them were being uncooperative, the entire rest dropped into a whirlpool of misery like a domino effect and in short that wasn't good.

His focus drifts to the cryopod room. 

He notices Lance isn't in there today like he usually is at that time but that makes Coran’s job easier. His attention doesn't have to be split in two as he looks over the red lion's status.

Keith's vitals on display on another screen: his heartbeat, a steady rhythm. His pulse, slow, but not concerning. Nothing has changed over the past week and a half yet he still hasn't awakened, which troubles the older Altean immensely. The cryo-pods are only supposed to heal injuries within two, maybe four days if the damage is severe. More than a week is pushing it. To make sure any wounds healed properly, Allura had insisted he be shirtless so they could visibly see the injuries close up. 

They all cringed at the sacred skin and managed patches of skin, their thoughts a rapid turmoil of scenarios that could have cause them. Within the first two hours any damage done to the flesh had healed-every cut, burn and bruise removed under the gentle care of the pods programming. Once done Lance had asked to put his shirt back on for whatever reason. He didn't elaborate though even when Allura said it was fine. 

The moment the chamber opened, Lance only had a few seconds to shove the shirt over his head before it slammed shut on him automatically. After that, it refused to open again.

It was perplexing. After the six hour mark when it resealed, Keith should have been out..yet the the pod refuses to unlock. In another hour he might actually have to go down and transfer him to another even though it had been well over the standard healing time. 

"I don't know!" Allura snaps, pausing in her steps to give the other Altean an exhausted glare. "I’m sorry I've been preoccupied with Galra trying to kill us every ten minutes! Next time I'll put on the ticker to keep track."

She's never this snappish, and yes, she knows she's over exaggerating the current circumstances but she can’t help it. The mustached man blames her sour mood on stress and the lack of sleep everyone has been be getting. It's taking a toll on them all.

Coran releases a small sigh and turns the screens off. "Princess Allura if I may," he begins calmly turning to give her his full attention. "You've been in here for almost a week with little to eat and no signs of rest. We found him- _ Lance _ and  _ Pidge f _ ound Keith Allura. He needs time to heal, we all do and your team needs you to help them push past this." He went around the control panel to stand by her side. "It's going to take time for us to heal-all of us. By you locking yourself in here will only tear the paladin’s further apart."

Allura releases a huff of exhaustion before planting down into a chair. "I'm trying Coran. But what am I'm supposed to do when NO ONE is talking to each other and can't stand being in the same room?! It's like dealing with baby Altean's who don't want to lie down for a nap!"

It's...overwhelming to say least. And it isn't because she has been working nonstop on her plans to take down Zarkon. Her paladin's were all anxious and tense, barely comatose at this point but who could blame them? It took Allura nearly two months to find them all while Keith was being held captive on Zarkon’s ship, which they didn't realize until Pidge had hacked into a robotic galra underling after they saved a planet from them.

If it wasn't for that piece of metal trash they would have never known where the red paladin was. 

At one point in her search, Allura had been close to calling it quits when she collected Lance from a desolate planet, stating to her remaining team they couldn’t waste time searching for one missing member while Zarkon spread his tyranny when no matter how far she scanned she couldn't pinpoint his location. She suggested going back to earth and finding a new rider for the red lion would be best. There was a lot of arguing, yelling matches that made Hunk scurry into the kitchen and glass getting broken. Shiro had destroyed more than enough equipment that needed to be replaced since he swore never to hit a woman. Pidge refused to corporate on anything, including training and Lance was the biggest protester amongst them. Arguing they barely had began their search for him to begin with-that it was cruel to just replace him without a shred of evidence that he was dead.

Red, who seemed to have a problem with the princess’s suggestion, roared in her face and slammed her shield around her to keep everyone out. If it wasn't Keith as her pilot then she wouldn't move until he was found.

Allura tried reasoning that eventually when they all grew old and died the lions would separate again anyways and the search for new pilots would begin. What was the big deal? There was no harm in scouting for a new red paladin when their current one probably met his untimely end.

That was met with a few bitter choice words from Lance and a middle finger earthlings equivalized to a 'fuck you'. She sees now , looking back at their dramatic reaction to her words, that she may have been too harsh under the pressure. They had a became like a close knit family, a group of misfits that managed to go beyond the realms of average and come alive when they worked together. A similar bond her now extinct planet once shared.

But now here she is sulking while her team fell apart at the seams. And there’s nothing she could think of that might help. 

Reaching over almost lazily, she pulls a file from a stack of messy folders on the control panel. She flips it open with a flick of her fingers to a page which Lance and Pidge had filled out a day after their return. It contains a written recollection of what happened during the rescue, details that they couldn't say in confidence with everyone else standing around. Both were brief though, stating that everything had gone according to plan and they had found Keith, unconscious in his cell. They had added their encounter with the two Druids who were twins in that report but overall, it’s still short.

It appears to be in place except for one detail that’s irritating the Altean princess.

The paladin's helmet recording system was disabled right before they had entered into Keith's cell. There’s no data to collaborate their information to tell of what exactly happened and neither one had an explanation on why that was. Knowing the green pilot, she probably did it the second they knew Keith was inside. If they are telling the truth in the state they found him in, why turn off any recording? The moment they encountered the Druids it came back on. Anything before that, up until they entered that cell, it was just black footage. 

Just what are they hiding?

Allura closes the folder with a sigh and throws it back with the others before she leans back against her seat. "Coran, I don't know what to do," she admits as she runs a tired hand down her face. "I can't tell them to suck it up and move on. You saw how they reacted when I said I was going to look for another member. Now look where we are: I...I honestly don't know what to do right now."

The elder smiles, standing before his princess. "Allura, maybe you should call a meeting? Let them get their feelings out, even if they start yelling at each other because right now I think that's what they need-what we  _ all  _ need. Even if you have to order them to tell you what is on their mind, I guarantee they'll feel better once they get it off their chest."

Allura takes in Coran’s words and mulls them around in her head. It sounds like a good idea..however, getting them to crawl out of whatever dark pit they holed themselves in isn't going to be easy. At least it’s an idea she'll admit. "Alright," she says hesitantly. "But how do I get them to actually get together? They won't even look me in the eyes anymore..."

A mischief glint appears in the orange haired man’s eyes. "Just leave it to me princess. I'll get them there in two clicks. Trust me.”

The paladin's were going to shoot him out the airlock with what he has in mind but he tells himself it's for the best.

**XXXXXXXXX**

“Paladin’s! This is an emergency! Keith is waking up!” Coran’s voice breaks through the loudspeakers, jolting the Voltron Team out of whatever daze they were in. "I repeat our red paladin is waking up!"

The effect was as if someone shot them all with adrenaline.

Lance trips and falls onto his face as he tries to detangle himself from his bed sheets at the announcement, ecstatic with the news mullet head is finally going to be up and moving.

The small oval-shaped device Pidge is tinkering with explodes in her face when she jams the screwdriver into the socket to hard but she doesn’t care as she bolts out of her room, soot all over her face and hair standing on end.

Shiro unfortunately pauses at the least opportune time and gets punched in the gut by a training droid, the announcement distracting him long enough for the bot to get a shot in. He, stumbles, quickly shutting the level eight program down before running out to the healing room.

Hunk, who is working on their dinner no one will probably eat, drops the tray of gourmet alien food. He nearly bumps into Pidge as he plows out of the kitchen like Zarkon is at his heels.

Excitement. 

Relief. 

It pours from each of the paladin’s in waves as they all try to fit through the door. More than once someone's elbow finds itself in someone's rib and a foot or two gets stepped on but no one seems to notice even as they manage to finally enter. Rushing towards Allura and Coran, who stand in front of Keith's pod, they peer anxiously inside to see if anything changed. Upon seeing the still sealed contraption, all eyes turn to glare poisonously at a grinning Coran, joy burning up like wood to be replaced with unrivaled anger. Allura smiles sheepishly from his side, her posture stiff.

“I told you they weren’t going to like that,” she hisses under her breath tensely.

“Well it got them here,” Coran replies back delightedly, which earns him an irritated hiss from the crew. 

Lance looks ready to murder the Altean.

After two weeks of not seeing any signs of Keith getting better, he was resigned to the fact he was never going to get out. He was actually toying with the thought of replacing the red paladin, the thought barely a small spark before he had heard the heart-stopping news. Lance was beyond relieved. Then come to find out Coran went and pulled this shit to get them to meet up in one room and for what?! Just to see how fast they could break the time space continuum?! Anger didn't begin to cover how upset the blue paladin is at the moment, his body vibrating from his effort to not dash across the little space and punch the older alien in his smiling face.

"What. The. Fuck?” he growls as he takes a menacing step towards the orange mustached man. He gestures angrily to Keith. “I don’t see an awake Keith Coran! What gives?!”

A chorus of agreement follows after him. 

"Now, now paladins-ow!"

Hunk's shoe finds its way across the room to hit him in the face. 

"Okay, I deserved that," Coran grumbles rubbing his nose. "But please, before you all start throwing more things hear me out.

Pidge discreetly hides the screwdriver she still has in her hands in her pocket.

"There has been signs of Keith waking up but it's too soon to be certain when the pod won't open up." Coran continues. "But that isn't why I called you all here."

"Then why?" Asks Shiro, displeasure in his tone. He was perfectly fine taking his frustrations out on a few training dummies, having already broken seven and working his way up to eight and he definitely wasn't in the mood for the run around. His midsection throbs as a reminder of his moment of distraction and he bites back a growl.

Allura takes a step towards them and holds up a placating hand. “It isn't Coran's fault. If anything I'm the one to blame for having to resort to drastic measures. We all have been tense...more than on edge lately and I fear we're getting off track."

Her soft words are met with harsh glares and the princess sighs, knowing she isn't going to get through to them with calming words unless she makes it perfectly clear why she had to call them all into one room. "What I mean is we have all avoiding each other and it has to stop now. I  _ know  _ everyone is upset about what has happened. You're all probably thinking what you could have done to prevent this but we have to be honest with ourselves...there was  _ nothing _ that could have been done. We didn't know what transpired after we separated and it wasn't anyone's fault but Zarkon's."

Lance makes an irritated sound in the back of his throat. "Hell yeah it's his fault!" He all but yells. "He had Keith for months Allura!  **_Months!_ ** We tried everything to find him,  **YOU** suggested searching for another pilot and if it wasn't for Pidge hacking that damn Galra robot we wouldn't have known shit! We could have found him sooner if-!"

"That's enough Lance!" Shiro cuts in tightly, his voice holding no room for arguing. The Latino shuts his mouth, glaring angrily at the floor. "Allura, you were saying?"

Allura gives the black lion a grateful smile before continuing. "We couldn't have prevented this but we still have to depend on each other. We are all hurting and feeling guilty but it won't do us any good if we all sit around and mope! I am asking as a friend, not as your princess, to please try and talk your feelings out instead of shying away to your rooms or doing whatever you do to cope. We are a team and at a time like this we all need to rely on each other."

"We already tried that pow-wow method and it didn't help. What else can we do?" Hunk asks.

"Well, aside from the fact I don't know what 'pow-wow' means, I don't expect you all to talk. Not until you're ready," Allura assures. "But just keep in mind you won’t be able to form Voltron if your emotions are all over the place so it’ll be a good thing to let it out sometime soon instead of bottling them all up only to have it explode later on in the most inappropriate time. We're lucky we escaped to a peaceful galaxy where Zarkon’s army hasn't reached though, who knows how long that will last."

No one speaks for a few moments, letting the princess’s words sink in. There has been a lot of self-moping going around, understandable given what has transpired over the past several months and it hasn't gone unnoticed by any of them.

Hunk sometimes feels like a dog-he picks up on everyone else's emotions and lets it affect him even though he knows it shouldn’t. He was the first to suggest they all have a meditative break from the stress but he just got a growl from Lance and a kick to the knee by Pidge. After several failed attempts he decided it was best to just stay in the kitchen and out of everyone’s way until they stopped being so angry.

Shiro doesn't know how to react so he takes his frustrations and anger out in training. He isn't doing it on purpose, hell, he knows that with a simple command he could get them all to just let everything go and move on however he refuses to uses his leader status to force his teammates-his  _ friends-  _ into that position. As much as he wants to beat himself up for not being there when Keith was found, he knew there was nothing he could do now except take it one day at a time. Once Keith finally emerges from his sleep, he was going to need a lot of support if he was ever going to feel normal again. And waking up to an emotional team wouldn't help in his recovery.

Pidge stares down at the ground, deep in her own thoughts. She lost her brother to the Galra and she was in near tears at the thought of losing another she had considered being very close to when she realized Keith wasn’t anywhere near them. The green paladin had been determined-using every resource, every scientific theory known to her to mark where he could be. She had spent endless nights awake searching through the quadrants of any planet he might have landed on, forgoing eating and taking minimal breaks in between. It was only by a stroke of luck that they were saving a planet from one of Zarkon's mining fiascos did she take a leap of fate. She didn't want to lose another family member to that Galra. The thought made her sick to her stomach. 

Allura is right...if she is going to get over whatever she’s feeling there had to be a long therapy session that didn't involve getting her hands into a machine and ripping it apart so she can be there for him when he awoke.

Lance has his own reason for not wanting 'talk it out'. In fact, whenever he thinks about it, bile seems to want to fill his throat and he can barely breathe as he contemplated on telling everyone what he had truly seen in Keith's cell.

How can he explain to his team that whenever he closes his eyes, all he can see is Keith holding onto his own decapitated head like it's his only source of comfort?

How can he tell them Keith attacked him like a savage mongrel because he was hallucinating and didn't seem to recognize him? 

How can he admit he is fucking terrified of seeing the red pilot out of the cryo-pod because he knows their friend might not be there anymore? 

Lance barely manages to open his mouth to tell Allura he thinks he may not be able to ever talk about how he feels when a blaring alarm sounds above them. Red lights flash like neon lights from where Keith is and Coran is rushing to him in a panic. The teen is inside, gasping desperately for air as his left hand claws wildly at his own throat, his right pounding against the glass. No one had noticed he had woken up and they quickly go into action.

"What's going on?!" Pidge screams above the loud siren wail as she moves to grab the makeshift cot Lance was using when he decided to sleep in the room.

"Something must has gone wrong in the pod!" Coran yells back as he tries to override the locking mechanism to release Keith from inside. There was no forewarning as to why it was happening, but all he knew was the teen needed to get out as quickly as possible. "He's not getting any oxygen!"

He can't get it open fast enough for Shiro’s liking and he rushes over. "Move!" The yell is the only warning the older man gets before Shiro’s galratech arm is punching a hole through the glass chamber. It breaks in several places but there's enough room to remove Keith from it without the need to worry they might cut him when they remove him. It takes him and Hunk to pull the red paladin out and onto the floor.

Everyone is moving, taking orders from Allura as she gets down on her knees to examine him. She isn't a medic, but she was going to do her best to figure out what was wrong...and hopefully save his life.

**XXXXXXXXX**

His body is on fire.

Each inhale brings a short burst of pain in his inflamed lungs making it harder to breathe. He can barely feel the cold rag against his heated flesh or the icy water thrown on his chest to try and bring his temperature down. There are distressed voices around him-frantic, distant. Barely audible to his ears but he is too exhausted and overheated to put a name to the face of any of them.

Why is he so hot...?

“He needs to get cooler!”

“Goddamn it I already know that Hunk…Pidge pass me another cold towel!”

Frantic hands move across his body.

"Why didn't the pod work?!" A girl’s voice in fear.

"Someone get his clothes off!" An order that someone follows.

“Shit he shouldn’t be burning up like this!”  A man sounds worried to his left.

“What happened?!”

Was that...Shiro’s voice? Through the fog in his mind the red paladin on the cot could make out six people from behind half-lidded eyes. Two of them he barely recognizes through his blurred vision, the rest…who were they again? He didn’t know…it was too painful to remember right now.

Keith closes his eyes again. His skin is sweaty, uncomfortable even without his clothes on. He doesn't know these people. They shouldn't know him either.

Is that the reason he’s so hot? Were they making him feel this way? Were they trying to kill him?

_ No,  _ a small voice whispers.  _ They’re trying to save you. _

“Get the fuck out of my way if you aren't going to be useful! Now everybody stop panicking and start talking before I kick you all out! Coran! What. The. Fuck. Happened?!"

“He doesn't know!”  _ Lance _ , Keith's brain supplies, is close to going into hysterics. Wait, isn't he dead? “Keith hold on! Fuckc don’t fall asleep damn it! You gotta stay awake!"

But he wants to sleep. He's so tired all he needs is some rest and he'll be fine. A little nap isn't going to kill him.

A groan slips past his lips and he tries miserably to swat the hands away from him. Why did they keep touching him? Zarkon demands no one is allowed to touch without his permission. And he knows the Emperor didn't give these  _ filthy creatures  _ the okay. He doesn't want to get in trouble. Keith doesn't want to be forced to play with the twins if he didn’t listen.

Allura will die if he doesn't.

"Lance, grab me that water over there!"

Why the hell won’t they stop touching him?

Suddenly he's thrashing, his body jerking uncontrollably against the ground surprising the people around him.

“Shit! Hold him down! He’s starting to convulse!”

"Turn him on his side he might he having a seizure!"

There is a soft grunt as someone moves Keith as instructed.

"What's that on his back...?"

Someone gasps.

"Oh my god..." 

"What hadn't that healed yet?!"

They sound horrified.

Disgusted.

More hands on him and Keith has had enough. He screams in outrage as his body twitches, his fist raising and slamming into the nearest person. Whoever he hit cries out in pain and surprise before slumping down onto the floor in a bloodied heap. He struck hard enough to break bones. Before he can round on the next person, teeth bared like a barbaric savage and eyes wild, someone pushes his arm down and locks it down to the cot.

“Pidge!”

They aren't supposed to be touching him! He needs to leave! Allura and the rest of the team could still be saved. Emperor Zarkon was probably already informed and readying his carping knives to finish the job. Keith can’t let that happen. Not after he failed Lance and Pidge. Frustrated tears spill down his cheeks as he struggles harder for freedom.

"Help! Someone help me!" Keith screams as he twists against the hold across his chest, arms and legs. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please don't kill her!"

Shiro hisses in disbelief as his teammate fights against them. He has never seen someone react like this before in his life. Sure, he’s been in the military, he has seen what PTSD looked like in different people, but this went beyond that. Keith’s acting as if he didn’t know who they were. 

Lance holds down Keith with him, Hunk practically sitting on his legs to keep him from kicking anyone. Allura had move to help Pidge, dabbing a cloth over her forehead to collect the small trickle of blood when she landed, her head hitting the floor painfully.

Suddenly the red lion's pilot goes completely motionless, his body limp beneath their hands. No one dares to lift a finger. They don't in the event he begins acting up again. After several long minutes with no sign of him attempting to move, they slowly pull away from him. 

A tense silence soon follows. 

Allura straightens, helping Pidge to her feet. Her face is stony, a deep frown on her lips as she wipes away the last small trickle from the younger female’s face. She does it without saying a word.

Pidge quickly goes to stand next to Lance so she can check Keith's pulse to make sure he hadn’t died on them. 

It's then that Allura turns sharply, her eyes dark with anger and disappointment.

“One of you,” she begins in a deadly hiss towards Lance and Pidge. “Better start explaining about what really happened on that rescue mission or so help me I will leave you  **BOTH** on a desolate and miserable planet for the rest of your  **INSIGNIFICANT** human existence! I want details:  **NOW!** ."

Both pilots give each other a sideways glance, all eyes on them (though Shiro is more focused on making sure Keith wasn't going to attack anyone again). When Allura makes prompting sound, Lance stands up.  

"We will...just please, let’s get Keith to bed  before we explain. He can't stay on a cot all day and he might seize again."

His pleading sapphire eyes melts Allura’s hard look and she agrees, reluctantly, that they will move him to a more comfortable space. "After that I want you both to tell me the truth about what happened," she says sternly. "Whatever else transpired I need to know about it before I can work on a plan to help Keith. The fact you two blantly omitted important information is enough to drop you off somewhere since you risked everyone's safety but you're lucky I'm in no mood to go looking for a black hole. Shiro, you can move him now."

Taking that as permission, Shiro lifts Keith into his arms and carries him to his room. Everyone follows behind him but they stay back to watch silently as he takes his time to put him into some thin white clothes before tucking him to bed. 

"I'll watch him," Hunk offers. Even though he wants to hear what his friends have to say, someone had to watch Keith in case he woke up disoriented.

"That's fine. Just call Coran if you need anything or of he wakes up," the Altean princess agrees. She motions to Lance and Pidge again. "You two, command center."

Knowing they couldn't hold off any longer, the pair slowly make their way to the area, all the while thinking how they were going to get out of telling her the entire truth because if she knew it all, it was a guarantee Keith was never going to be part of Team Voltron ever again.

XXXXXXXXXX

**Zarkon's Ship (** Two weeks ago, the night after Keith's rescue **)**   
  
"Emperor Zarkon, was it wise to let the Voltron Paladin’s take their member so easily?" Kiola asks quietly from Haggar’s side. She's free of any injures, her face blank and not revealing the bitterness she feels at letting her target get away.   
  
Her twin isn’t any better and she lets her anger show with a scowl across her lips as she stands by her sister. She still hasn't healed the bruises, a reminder to herself for when the next time she encountered that small green paladin. On top of that, the green goblin destroyed almost the entire north side of Zarkon's main ship in their crusade to free one of their own. Entirely unnecessary if you asked her. "Yeah, you could have easily stopped those paladin’s if you wanted too but you send us instead of those bird-mask wearing dunderheads," she says accusingly. She didn’t have to get electrocuted if they were going to allow them to just leave without maiming them.   
  
Haggar smiles hauntingly under her hood, tilting her head in amusement at the twins sour expression. She answers for her Emperor, tone light and not at all reprimanding since they had done their job. "Do not worry, my beloved Druids. They will soon learn there is no hope for their paladin-No hope at all after what I have planned."   
  
The twins share an equally confused look before something clicks in their mind at the same time. They grin sinisterly at their leader, their eyes glowing brightly behind their masks as Haggar explains her brilliance to them. 

When she finishes, they know at the end of her plan, the results would reap a delicious reward.   
  
Deep within the ruined remains of Keith's cell, a tanned human-like male in tattered clothes crawls from the shadows towards Lance's replicated head. He tosses it into the air several times, catching it as he sings quietly to himself. " _ Come faster and faster there’s no time to waste. _ .."    
  
When he catches the head once more, grey-blue eyes examine it lovingly between his hands before he thrusts his fingers into the empty eye sockets. He twists them deep, the sound of sloshing fluid filling the silence until the digits pierce through the soft membrane through the back of the skull. With a mad cackle, the creature withdraws his soaking appendages and sticks them in his mouth. His tongue laps at the mucky, black clotted blood with a soft hum. 

Raising his other hand, he give the rotting thing one more pitiless look before he smashes Lance’s head against the cracked ground, a sickening laughter echoing throughout the small space.

Flesh splatters against his face to drip down his chin. He ignores the smelly mess of gore and brain matter, flicking a chunk off his cheek with indifference.   


" _ Hurry up little Paladins, the fun has only just begun _ ..." He whispers, his eyes flashing a bright red before the room is once again empty.

Very soon though, it will be occupied once again and Ezcnal couldn’t wait to play with them.

**To be Continued…**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fyi I am just making up aliens as I go along. I might post some sketches of the aliens I mentioned in the story on my Twitter page next weekend when I have time to scan them since my phone camera is a piece of shit. Until then, see you all in two weeks! I'll post a link to my Twitter in my bio ^ω^


	8. Lies and Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, late again lol well I should really stop making promises I can’t keep (Moon has officially ruined me from writing fanfics since that’s all I’ve been doing since it came out XD). But here ya guys go-I left you in suspense long enough. By the way, I am posting chapter nine tomorrow because I'm still working on it (six pages so far guys and it looks like there will be more). After that I’ll be working on two more Klance stories...//gets smacked over the head with a frying pan//

**Chapter Eight**

The weight of failure lingers through the air a week after Keith’s abrupt awakening. It’s thick and suffocating-like a wool blanket that made it hard to breathe and tore away anyone's sense of comfort with an sudden tug of their safety net. No one seemed to be able to sleep. Every waking moment makes it harder to ignore the growing defeat that their fellow paladin was never going to wake up.

Everyone, including Allura herself, had retreated back into the isolation that helped them forget their problem since that day-Pidge and Lance making a disappearing act the first chance they got whenever they were in the same room together. It’s probably due to the molasses thick lies that kept spewing from their mouths like acid whenever they were repeatedly asked what happened. At some point, they both just stopped appearing in anyone’s company because they couldn’t fucking take it anymore.

The probing.

The constant, untrusting eyes.

The fact they knew they were hiding something even though Allura had finally closed the report on their rescue.

**Flashback**

_"What really happened when you two found Keith and don't make me repeat myself," the Altean princess almost snarled at her two paladin’s once they were back in the pod room. Shiro and Coran stood behind the two pilots, a not so suitable way of saying without speaking they weren't going to run away from this.  "I want to know_ **_everything_ ** _"_

_"Allura, it's not that simple," Pidge mumbled weakly. They couldn't explain what they saw...well she couldn't really since she had turned away after Lance decided he would be the one to settle Keith down. She had nearly cried at the sight of him and it was only because of Lance's pleading eyes did she not tell Allura what they had witnessed._

_The princess already had a shaky grip on how humans reacted to strong emotions, she didn't want to think about what she would do if she found out Keith had lost whatever sense of reality that he had._

_"Than simplify it," Shiro said from their right. His voice wasn't hard or demanding. It sounded like he was trying to gentle cox them into giving up everything.  "You were the only ones to see him in whatever state he was in and after what we just saw, we need to know to better help him."_

_Pidge flinched at the tone. How many times did she have to lie? How many times was she going to open her mouth and from it, spill forth the story she had Lance had made together at the last second? She may have lifted one damned lie off her shoulder when she confessed her true gender, but she had to hide another one? She swore vengeance against the older teen the moment she got the chance._

_Lance, who was silent for the most part, mainly because he wanted to spit on all of them. "Well how the hell should we know what happened to cause such a reaction? Keith was with_ **_Galra_ ** _for two months.  I kind of expect him to be a bit nutty after that. Besides," he added bitterly, "You should know all about that Shiro since you were with them too."_

_His tone was tense and had an underline mocking beneath it. Did they think Keith was such a special case that they forgo Shiro was in the former boat? The only difference was, the black paladin wasn't being tortured with fake look-alike heads to drive him insane. He, of all people, shouldn't be so goddamn pushy._

_Everyone wanted to know the truth?_

_Did they truly want to hear that Keith was so fucked up in the head he didn't recognize them?_

_Did they want to imagine stepping into that cell with relief that they found him only to realize a moment later their teammate was no where near the definition of fine?_

_Because it was fucking terrifying being face to face with his friend when he didn't have a sensible grip on reality._

_Keith had lost his fucking mind with fear and Lance would be damned if he told them exactly what happened. And when he did get better he would most likely shoot him into the nearest black hole for disclosing his mental state so freely as of talking about the weather (Lance could already see the red paladin sending his lion to pummel him into the ground)._

_"I'm being truthful here Allura," Lance continued. "Pidge and I did everything exactly as planned, and yeah, the helmets system malfunctioned after the third explosion but it only lasted about five, ten minutes tops. I didn't notice though since I'm not a tech-geek..."_

_He shot Pidge a look from the corner of his eye, hoping she got the hint that the helmets decided to act up on it's own and it wasn't due to his insistence in silent hand gestures that they should turn them off because they didn't know what they were getting into before they walked in that cell._

_Allura stared at him suspiciously before turning to Pidge. "Then how come your comm was alright?" She asked._

_"Well, it was the video feed that was disrupted," Pidge explained. "We could hear everyone just fine but I'll have to go with Lance on this-the helmets recording system was momentarily cut off due to the blast's shock wave. It did affect the comm links as well. I looked into them after we put Keith in the pod and found that some of the wires had been fried that linked to the video feed. The earpiece was only slightly damaged."_

_"That doesn't explain how you were able to record the fight with the twin druids," Coran commented._

_Pidge turned her head slightly to look at him. "I already looked into that as well. Apparently there's a backup wire that was used in case something like this happens. Following the line I saw it was connected to the video aspect of the helmet. It just happened to kick in when we faced against the Druids."_

_The look of disbelief on their faces was expected but Allura only sighed in defeat. She may not have known much about Altean technology, but she trusted Pidge's judgement. "But that doesn't explain why he freaked out..." She muttered._

_"I already did explain: Keith was tortured by Galra. He may need some time to get his mind straight and realize we aren't the enemy," Lance quickly said._

_With no evidence to disprove what the two paladin’s said, Allura grumbled something in Altean under her breath before she dismissed them with a small wave of her hand. She had to set up a meeting with the planet’s king to allow them more time in their orbit, and hopefully some supplies to last them a few weeks._

_When Pidge and Lance were finally alone, the smaller girl rounded on the taller male so fast he thought her neck would snap at the force. Her hazel eyes were ablaze with fury as she stared him down. "_ **_Never_ ** _make me lie to Allura again," she hissed in a vicious tone. "I_ **_will not_ ** _cover for your ass again!"_

_"You won't have too," he sighed. Lance rubbed a hand over his face in exhaustion, unable to deal with her hate for him after that. "Just...I need time to figure this out without everyone giving us suspicious stares all the damn time."_

_"I don't know why we even had to lie..." The green lion pilot hissed sourly under her breath.  "He freaked out...so what? Like you said, he was being tortured for who knows how long."_

_Lance took a deep breath and blew it out in an irritated huff. Why was everyone dismissing it like it was no big deal? Her brother was still with the Galra so she shouldn’t say shit about ‘so what’. From the look she was giving him, the short female far from letting this incident go, he could see. He discreetly looked back and forth around the corridor, making sure the coast was clear so no one would see what he was about to do. When he was absolutely sure there they were alone, the blue paladin quickly pulled her into a empty storage closet, slamming and locking the door shut behind him._

_"What the hell Lance?!" Pidge shrieked incredulously at the rough treatment._

_"He was holding my head."_

_Those quietly spoken words made Pidge stop her attempt to slap him on his head. It took her brain a couple of minutes to try and decipher what Lance had said._

_She blinked._

_"E-excuse me?"_

_"When Keith got on top of me in the cell...something fell out of his arms…” Lance began. He recalled the gory image of himself and he shuddered. “He was clenching onto my head Pidge-a decaying, rotten, black ooze dripping out of it fucking perfect replica of my goddamned head. I had no fucking eyes! They fucked him up Pidge. They fucked him up real good if they were making it look like we were dead. This goes beyond anything psychological we can think of.”_

_Pidge’s mouth fell open in horror and in that moment, Lance knew she understood why he wanted to keep everything they saw to themselves. There was no telling how far Zarkon went in order to make Keith behave. What he faked to make him believe he had caused all of their deaths that even the healing pods couldn’t reverse._

_“I...okay...I get it. I won’t say anything...but you have to tell someone other than me,” she quietly said. “I don’t think we can handle this by ourselves.”_

_She felt guilty for leaving everyone else out, but who knew how they would react to something that horrific._

_Lance smiled gratefully at her and turned around to unlock the door._

_Now, who else were they going to drag in their little shit hole of a mess?_

**End Flashback**

From that day on, Allura insisted someone stays by Keith's side at all times during the duration of their stay in the Z-1047 quadrant (a relatively peaceful section in the galaxy that had yet to be conquered by Zarkon). If he so much as twitches or shows any signs of waking up, they were to alert everyone else as fast as possible. For once, since having to chase down the Voltron Team and dragging their asses back together, no one argues or complains about the change. She assigns them a schedule, leaving Coran out of it  because they needed to start working on the castle ship and do some maintenance on some parts. That left Hunk, Pidge, Shiro and Lance on guard duty.

Shiro is on watch now.

He enters Keith's room after Pidge relieves herself, muttering that there was no change before disappearing down the hall to her own quarters. The black paladin sighs and takes a seat in the chair that was placed besides the bed. When Coran realized the cryopod was useless. Keith was put back inside and it proved useless after his scans suddenly flew off the charts when it closed. He had prematurely stopped the chamber and released him after that, much to their disappointment.

The older Altean suggested they move him back to his room and he moved to pick Keith up.

That was a mistake.

The black paladin sighs wearily and runs a hand over his face in exhaustion. Keith was like a wild beast, unpredictable and dangerous. Shiro had not expected that reaction at all. His friend had fought them-fought **_him_ ** of a people. He had punched Allura on the side of her right cheek when she tried to help restrain him, Hunk got a kick to the gut that left him wheezing for breath, Lance had more bite marks then Shiro cared to keep count of and he suffered a few claw marks to his human arm that slowly healed after a few minutes.

With one good placed punch to the back of his head, he had knocked the red lion’s pilot back out again. Everyone started arguing after that. It was becoming a routine thing it seemed, much to Shiro’s displeasure. He’s becoming quite tired of the bickering, the screaming...the constant insults and he tries to drown them out by focusing on healing Keith. Even so, he’s feeling the undeniable urge to punch something other than a few training bots-preferably a human face. It’s taking all his training and self-meditation to try and keep himself calm enough to not fly off the handle because he is this. Close. To. Cracking.

There’s a constant pressure in the back of his head-an angry voice that blames him for what happened to Keith. He had him. They were together in the haul of the castle-ship and he didn’t have enough sense in the chaos to grab onto him before they were thrown out by the violent rocking motion.

Yes.

It's his fault.

He was right there, despite the fact they were knocked out together. He had a better grip on his lion and had managed to catch red before she flew to far from him. How the fuck could he have missed Keith sailing across space?!

Shiro has failed Keith, just like he failed Matthew, Pidge’s brother.

Letting the realization wash over him that yes, he seriously fucked up and he deserved to feel like shit, he sank into contemplation of the boy resting peacefully on the bed. Pidge, in her brilliance, had created a machine using parts from one of the cryopods to monitor his heart.  If there was any change-a small spark, a jump in brain activity that an alarm would go off around the entire castle. Underneath the thin sheet, he could see the electrodes that are attached to his chest, the different color wires making a path to the small machine in place of the table lamp.

He doesn’t move for a long time.

From the clock besides the heart monitor (he’s amazed Pidge can create Earth replica’s in a short amount of time), reads it’s two in the afternoon. He has until five to watch over Keith and then it’s Lance’s turn.

Shiro sits and watches him the rest of his hours, his thoughts of his failure lingering in the forefront of his mind.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Lance comes in an hour after Shiro eats lunch to relieve him from watching Keith. They give each other a quick glance from the corner of their eyes before contact is lost by the swift closing door. He takes a seat in the now vacated chair and folds his arms over his chest as he just stares. He can’t believe that the sleeping boy, the one that attacked so violently and with such craze it had momentarily stunned him, could be capable of such...fierceness...such overwhelming fear. The joy of having the paladin open his eyes was blackened by the angry attack fueled by anxiety and panic. Now...he’s as calm as a napping kitten which is an ironic turn around from his wild self from last week.

Reaching out with his left hand, Lance runs his fingers through Keith’s hair. He just does it, no real reason behind it other than he just wants his hands to do something. It’s soft- silky to the touch despite the matted areas on his scalp. They hadn’t cleaned him since they rescued him but he assumed once he fully awakened, without dread filling his eyes and making his form shake, he would demand to take one. The ends of his signature mullet is longer now, curling around the base of his neck over his shoulder. His fingertips trail on their own volition along the side of the pale teen’s neck, lingering over the steady pulse beating beneath the surface of his skin. He rubs his thumb over the fading scar on his jugular unconsciously. It disappears behind his neck and Lance doesn’t need to turn him over to know where it leads too. 

The damning brand Zarkon gave him, in what Lance believed to be a parting gift of some sort...or a claiming...

At that a sudden surge of rage, repulsed at the thought, fills when when the flash of an image of Keith’s back crosses his mind. He wishes he could go back onto Zarkon’s ships and destroy them utterly erase them from existence with his bare hands. He will make it painful, Lance knows he will, and never ending until they begged for their pitiful lives to end. They had hurt Keith in unspeakable ways and for that they would pay it a thousand times over until he deemed them worthy of a quick death.

Keith’s chest twitches under his hand and the Hispanic realizes even in his senseless state, he can pick up the growing animosity within him through his own skin.  Sucking in a deep breath, Lance does his best to set aside his fury. It’s futile; every nerve ending in his body is roaring for him to get inside his lion and charge straight at the Galra’s army until his thirst for retribution is quenched. When he sees his own hands shaking violently because he's so close to exploding, he pulls them away as if Keith's body was like molten lava-too hot to touch any longer.

He clenches his fist to his own chest, his blue eyes darkening to the point they looked black under the fluorescent light.

It scares him, in a way. That he can suddenly become so infuriated in a blink of an eye. Sure, he's used to being emotional-usually he'll crack a joke, smile and try and push anything negative away so he doesn't have to deal with them but this time, he can't even bring himself to attempt any humorous jabs or try and lighten the mood. He doesn't have the energy when his teammate...no his friend, was lying comatose in his bed with no guarantee he was ever going to get better. Hopelessness keeps Lance silent, and hatred the only thing keeping him from burning the whole ship to the ground.

All because of Keith. Fucking. Dropout. Kogane.

"Arrgh! Why do you have to do this to me?!" Lance screams into the emptiness, his hands ruffling through is hair in agitation. He stopped his erratic movements to glare at the black haired teen. “When you wake up you bastard you owe me big for covering your ass,” he whispered. He leans back in the chair, resigning himself to another silent shift. He focuses his attention on the ceiling hoping to distract his sour mood from worsening by counting the small cracks he sees.

He doesn’t notice the more pronounced twitch of Keith’s fingers, nor the soft flutter of eyelids opening until the alarm Pidge set up blares throughout the room nearly making the blue paladin fall out of his seat.

Lance’s head jerks down and his eyes connect with glazed over blue-gray eyes.

And for once, they didn’t hold any fear.

**To be Continued...**


	9. Unexpected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I promised, chapter freaking nine. In other news, I got myself a shiny new beta and her name is Ghostings~ she'll be editing the chapters from now on but for now while she does that I'm posting it now cause I can't wait lmfao XD 
> 
> And...oh..what's this...did I add a little something towards the end? Hmmmm that's late Happy Turkey Day for you guys >w< please enjoy!

**Chapter Nine**

Less than ten minutes after Keith is awake everyone is at each other's throats.

Shiro grits his teeth tight until he hears them crack under the pressure-Hunk is crying loudly with overjoy next to him while Lance is trying to calmly defuse an argument with Coran and Pidge. He has never seen the mustached man so livid before today. His face is three different shades of red as he bellows reasons Shiro doesn’t really care to listen about and the shorter female is not having him talk down to her as if she’s a child. Allura is attempting to bring peace, her tone desperate as she yells above all of them to lower their voices.

And the room is too cramped for any of this shit and he wants them all  **out** because, and they seem to have forgotten there is someone else in the room that just woke up and is probably confused to hell. He takes a quick glance at the younger man and his heart sinks at what he sees: Keith is huddled against the wall of his bed, his body curled into himself as he rocks gently. His eyes are wide, glassy looking about three steps away from going into a panic attack. 

It’s a stupid fight to begin with. But it’s one that seems to make Pidge and Coran lose their shit and start a screaming match with the taller man. 

Pidge had insisted that before Coran probed him to make sure he was okay, he needed to take a bath, put on some clean clothes and have a much needed meal to bring his strength up. The orange haired man didn’t argue that but  **he** insisted he needed to do some scans and he didn’t understand why Pidge was so adamant about someone bathing with him. Back on Altea even the most weakest creature could move on their own without the need of help from others so what was the difference?

“There’s a huge fucking difference between an ALTEAN ALIEN AND A HUMAN!” Pidge had shrieked, causing Keith to further retreat against the wall from the loud outburst.

Everyone else knows the green paladin is right, but when they tried to interject they were quickly shut down so fast it almost seemed impossible. Shiro doesn’t understand- Keith is nowhere near capable of cleaning himself, let alone strong enough to walk all the way to the washing facility. He barely has come out of his fatigue from sleeping for so long, only for Pidge and Coran to start arguing as loudly as possible. There shouldn’t even be any discussion on the matter!

It’s an amazing feat Lance hasn’t started yelling anything himself. Simply put,he doesn’t want Keith to cower away from him when he reaches out to try and get him to come to him. Soon enough though, the blue paladin is joining in their shouting match-demanding them to calm down. He of course takes Pidge’s side-that yes, Coran can look at Keith but only  **after** he had something to eat and caught his bearings. Allura is joining in before Shiro can process what’s happening, going nose-to-nose with the late teen and now yelling back at him for yelling at Coran. Hunk’s crying is building up to a crescendo and the shrieks of arguing with swear words thrown in the mix makes his head spin. 

Shiro knows this isn’t going to get resolved without someone getting a fist to the face.

One look at the red paladin’s shaking form and the black pilot has had enough.

"Alright everyone shut up- **NOW!** "

With startled faces they turn to him. Even the yellow paladin stops crying, the last of his tears fading down his cheeks at the stern tone of his leader. It would have been almost comical to see how quickly their mouths closed, even Allura’s, and their attention shifted to him. If Keith wasn’t being a frightened child on the bed Shiro would have thrown them all on their ass outside the room. He glares them all down with the look of someone who wasn’t fucking around. He shifts over to where the black haired teen is and carefully places a hand over his head, shooting them a look over his shoulder.

Tension fades. Their anger deflate and to his satisfaction, they look guilty.Good. They realize how ridiculous they were being.

“Keith just woke up,” Shiro scolds them. “And all you guys can do is bicker like children over what you should do with him first! Coran you may run your test when Keith is taken care of. He needs to bathe and he needs to eat something before you start poking him. He’s probably not even going to let you after what he just witnessed so just wait!”

“But-!” 

Shiro shoots the older man’s protest down with a venomous black look. Coran makes a weird noise in the back of his throat and storms out, muttering Altean curses all the way. The black paladin doesn’t care. He’s older than all of them yet he was being so unreasonable it went beyond insensitive. There is only so many things Shiro will let pass because they are two different species but he’s drawing the line for Keith. Princess Allura gives them an apologetic look before going after him, probably to try and get him to calm down before he did something stupid.

“Hunk, wipe yourself up and go prepare something light for Keith to eat,” The black paladin instructs. “Try talking to the inhabitants if they have anything that won’t upset his stomach and be as discreet as possible.”

Lord only knows whatever Allura has on the ship isn’t going to sit well with his empty stomach (and from the looks of it, Keith wasn’t eating regularly-he’ll most likely throw up the food they give him if it’s too heavy or too much in a short amount of time). The bulky teen can only nod at the order and soon he is running out of the room to do as instructed, leaving himself, Pidge and Lance.

Pidge and Lance are grinning in victory but soon flinch away when Shiro turns to them. “Wipe that look off your face,” he snaps. “Lance, find him some clothes.”

"I don’t think we have anything that will fit him,” Lance replies looking Keith up and down. He’s too skinny now for his own clothes and he doubts whatever he finds won’t fit comfortable. 

"Fine, I’ll go find something I can make into something that won’t restrict him," Shiro snaps. 

His attention turns to Pidge than. Her eyes are narrowed behind her glasses, unhappy with him for yelling at her. Again, he doesn’t let it affect his mood and he just points to the door. He doesn’t have to say a word. She swears, stomping out because she really doesn’t want to apologize for her behavior. He follows after her but before he gets any further he looks back to Lance. 

“Shower or bath I don’t care just get him clean.”

With that being his last say, Shiro walks out to search his quarters for something appropriate for Keith to put on.

Alone, Lance doesn’t know what to do. Having grown up with five other siblings, Lance knows exactly how to wash the human body (with such practiced ease it would appear borderline creepy) but this is...completely different. He can’t let Keith be by himself in the tub-too many things could go wrong and unfortunately Lance didn’t think he would appreciate having someone watch him while he bathed. On the other hand, a shower seemed like the better option, lesser of the two evils because he could hold him up without the annoyance of trying to pull him out of the bathtub. From what he sees now, Keith flinches every time someone even tries to get close...other than Shiro he noticed. 

He doesn’t want to, but he does it anyway. 

Lance reaches forward, hesitating for only a brief moment because Keith visible shies away, but finally he runs his hand over his scalp. He touches him as gently as he can as to not scare him and moves agonizingly slow as he wraps his hand around Keith’s pale arm. 

"Things'll be all right, Keith," he croons, his voice barely above a whisper. Keith’s eyes focus on him, then fall to the bed. The blue pilot wonders if that’s just a normal reaction now after what he had been though and tries not to think about the torment that has him as silent as a butterfly's wing. Sighing, he entices him to follow him out of his comfortable position and to the bathroom. There is a tentative way Keith moves behind Lance as they walk the short distance to the bathing facility but he keeps his pace, his weight mostly leaning against his body to keep himself from falling over. 

There are ten doors total along the wall when he enters and Lance opens the closet one to his right. The room is spacious, three times the size of their their bedrooms. It’s painted like the rest of the castle-ship in a milky white with light shades of blue and gold accents along the wall. To the left is the toilet and sink and along the opposite wall, twenty steps away from the door, is the shower and bathtub that connect. On the wall opposite of the sink there’s a towel rack with rags along with a bench.

“Sit here,” he points to the wooden seating space with his finger as he twists the water knob in the shower. His reflection catches his eyes as the mirror fogs over with the rising steam. He needs a shower himself. Lance hadn’t noticed the dark bag over his eyes or the way his hair looked beyond unkept. He looks at Keith over his shoulder-how his body slumps with an effort to keep sitting straight, and the way he glances around the room under his bangs as if something was going to come out and attack him, Lance knows he can’t leave him alone. 

He’s going to have to get in the shower with him…

“Keith,” he ques. The other paladin seems zoned out so he takes a step forward and gets down on his knees. Lance gingerly pulls the pants he’s wearing off. He takes it as a good sign that he doesn’t immediately get a kick in the face.  "You ready for a shower?"

Their eyes lock. 

It’s then that Lance looks at him-truly looks at him without the constant memory of explosives going off, smoke filling his lungs and the crashing weight against his chest when Keith had embraced him like he was the last thing he was ever going to see before he was put to death. Everything comes crashing down and Something breaks in Lance’s heart. He doesn’t realize what he’s doing before it's too late to back out. 

He throws the dirty pants into the corner, uncaring of where it lands so he can and wrap his arms around his friends stomach. Because he’s on his knees, he’s practically suffocating himself as he pushes his face into the pale chest in front of him and sobs.  Lance can’t cry really-he has no more tears to shed but he lets go instead with broken, nonsensical words. Keith's body is stiff, yet silently he endures the embrace. As though he wants to pull away but doesn’t know how too. 

Lance collects himself and when he looks at him again, he sees an unreadable expression on his face, eyes shadowed but he can see they aren’t as blank as they were before. “Sorry about that,” he chuckles watery. 

Keith doesn’t say anything, and Lance stifles the agitated sigh-he guesses He isn’t in a talking mood quite yet…”Alright, emotional stuff over, let's get you in the shower,” Lance says as he tries to make his voice sound more cheerful than what he actually felt. "I'm going to come in with you, okay?" 

Lance lets Keith go, and while keeping a watchful over him, began to strip off his own clothes. And to his surprise Keith watches him closely without so much of a blink of his eyes as he takes in what’s happening in front of him. His gaze is dark while he scrutinizes him and the blue paladin finds himself blushing. In a rush to take off his pants, his knee hits the corner of the sink and he lets out a indignities cry. His feet became tangled and he soon found his face connecting with the cabinet.

He expects Keith to laugh but only absolutely silence followed his face-plant. 

“You would have been cracking a joke by now ya know,” Lance grunts picking himself off the floor. Kicking his pants away, he rummages through the cabinet for soap, shampoo and conditioner. He also finds some nail clippers and items to brush their teeth (after a quick huff of breath against his hand he decided that two toothbrushes cause he needed to clean his own mouth). Placing the items on the counter he checks the water temperature one more time and adjusts it accordingly so it won't burn them.

"Come on," he urges, pulling aside the curtain. Water splashes against his skin and he shivers slightly. Keith doesn't move towards him.

_ What the hell?  _ Lance thinks, holding the curtain open further. it’s...unnerving how silent he is being. Doesn’t he understand this is equally embarrassing and uncomfortable for him too? They were about to get in the shower together for god's sake! Nothing can get as awkward then that. "Keith, come over here now.”

It’s an order that seems to have the desired effect because the other teen stands smoothly from his spot, eyes still downcast though but at this point Lance doesn't care. He just wants to get it over with so he can get him something to eat. Practically manhandling him, Lance tugs him into the shower stall and closes the curtain to keep the bathroom from getting at. 

Holding him steady, Lance pushes him under the nozzle, muttering a soft apology when Keith flinches at the contact. The temperature is barely hot, just warm enough to not burn his delicate skin. It’s no surprise when 90% of him is covered in grime and he hadn’t gotten a proper cleaning in weeks. 

Sighing, Lance squirts a melon-scented liquid shampoo into his hands. Keith doesn’t need prompting-he stands passively with his limbs lax as Lance lathers his hair. The first two times he has to rinse and repeat because his hair is so tangled and dirty the soap won’t foam. The third time works and soon white is running down the drain instead of brown. He leaves the shampoo in his hair so he can start on washing the rest of him with a nuns enter soap bar. 

Whatever awkwardness he felt before vanishes as he focuses on scrubbing Keith clean. The water turns a muddy brown as more and more dirt is rubbed away revealing pale skin beneath. Lance is careful not to be too rough in his cleaning, and he desperately ignores the fact he’s actually washing Keith’s privates. It isn’t like ha hadn’t done it before since he helped his mother give his younger brothers baths They were both guys...and one of them is currently too out of it to care so win-win.

“I’m kind of hoping you won’t ever mention this to anyone if you remember anything at all,” Lance mutters. “Tilt your head back so I can wash this shampoo out.”

Silence, but Keith tips his head back obediently so he can rinse out the soap. Lance runs his hands over his silky curls, combing through it so it doesn’t get tangled. Keith closes his eyes and let's put a soft purr at the massage making Lance chuckle lightly at the reaction. 

“Who knew you enjoyed someone playing with your hair,” he snickers. That fact is going on the list of things he can tease him with later.

Keith turns around slowly in Lance’s arm. He rest his head against his shoulder. Grinning slightly at the first sign of hope Keith isn’t completely gone, his fingers curl in the wet hair at the nape of his neck. Maybe things didn’t seem so hopeless after all. Maybe, all Keith needed was to know everyone is going to fight to bring him back. The old him that got in his face and challenged him. Lance...everyone on Team Voltron, can bring him back from this shelled state he’s in. 

He’s just made peace with that though when he felt it. Slender fingers running down his stomach to tease the curls of his cock and the feeling is so sudden and completely unexpected, Lance stands there mortified with his mouth hanging open in shock. 

His brain short-circuits. Red alarms flash warningly in front of his eyes when Keith’s slim form suddenly sinks further until he’s on his knees. It takes him five seconds, plus lips caressing the head of his dick for him to move. He shoves him away, taking three shaky steps back and keeps going until he hits the wall.

“What the actually fuck!?” Lance exclaims. Something he can’t pinpoint boils down in his stomach and he feels sick because yes, Keith was about to give him a blowjob and no, there was no way in fucking hell Lance was going to let that happen. “What the hell is wrong with you Keith?!”

The teen stares at him, and for once Lance can see confusion swimming behind his blank look. “Have I done something wrong, Master Zarkon?” 

Lance lets out a mortified squeak as a white-hot anger courses through him. There’s a ringing in his ear so loud it drowns out the running water.  _ DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT!?  _ He thinks as he tries to calm his racing heart. No, no no this isn’t happening.

“Master…?” 

Now it’s Lance’s turn to flinch. As much as he’s overjoyed that he’s finally talking, he’d prefer it if wasn’t because of that fucking Galra. 

Deciding that the best thing to do, for now, is to pretend nothing happened. Not until he talked to someone because he didn’t know what would happen if he tries doing that to anyone else. Or address them as master. Lance shivers in disgust at the thought as he turns off the shower head. He is in no mood to finish washing his hair and he just wants to get Keith out of the shower as fast as possible. Despite not being able to wash himself, at least Keith is clean and doesn’t smell anymore...

_ And fuck he tried to give me a fucking blow-job in the shower!  _ Okay, maybe Lance is still having a mental breakdown over that...

“Lance, you done?” The voice of Shiro calls from behind the closed door.

He jumps at the sound and briskly towels Keith off. “Y-yeah,” his own voice cracks a little and he’s wrapping Keith’s waist just as the leader steps inside with a pair of sweatpants and faded blue shirt. 

“How is he?” Shiro asks when Lance takes the clothes. 

_ Oh peachy except hey, when we were on the shower together he tired to suck me off but no worries.  _

Lance feels the words at the tip of his tongue. They were bubbling up, beyond his ability to control the truth from escaping. Instead he forces a grin and pushes Keith towards him. “Everything went fine. You dress him, I got to shower.”

No way in fucking hell was he going to tell anyone about what happened. 

**To be continued...**   
  



	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp after having a craptastic Holiday, New Year and every other fucking holiday that passed I have come out of my goddamn writer s block! Yay me! I honestly have no excuse as to why this took so long...except writers block...and the depressing season 2 finale of Voltron topped with my slowly deteriorating mental health...
> 
> I haven't sent this chapter to my beta yet cause I'm eager to get to you quickly so errors are my own! I'm going to spend this weekend posting the edited chapters (I haven't started but I promise I will get around to it Saturday). Enjoy this chapter while I scramble to keep my sanity in tack.
> 
> Peace mofos!

**Chapter Ten:** Different

_Be a good human and everything will be alright._

**_Never disobey._ **

_Do you understand now? You were never going to win this battle._

**_Never disobey._ **

_You're entire world will crumble and fall beneath my feet and the blame will be on you._

**_Never disobey._ **

He will never forget those words. Not now, not ever. Obedience keeps the rest of his team alive and him alive. If he is told to sit on the floor like a dog, then that is what he must do. If he is told to fight and murder, then he will without a moment of hesitation. 

If he is commanded to lay and be **_used_** in anyway, then he will say nothing but obey. 

There is no room for disobedience when other lives were at stake. 

Keith stares blankly ahead as the larger male guides him out of the bathing quarters and into another room, Zarkon's foreboding words echoing in his head. It feels strange, seeing all these faces and not being able to place a name on any of them but he can remember the olive skinned teen from somewhere more than the rest. He sometimes can remember his smile. The playful banter. Sometimes he recalls the pleasant scent that was associated with it and how wonderful it was to be wrapped around it like a comforting blanket... but the memory is faded-coated in a black and red. sludge too thick to swim in to grab.

Somewhere, a part of him knows every last one of them...from the Altean’s warm smile and the bulky teen’s laughter, to the young girl who seemed smart enough to disassemble Zarkon's ship if she so chose. Every time he gets a glimpse of a name, a memory, or a sound something dark and ugly pushes the thought away and Keith forgets just as quickly.

He doesn't want to ponder on it for too long anyways-it isn’t his right to ask such meaningless questions and cling to pointless memories. He doesn’t need them. All he has is whatever his Master thinks he deserves. Like this man guiding him through the narrow white passageway. For punishment or reward, Keith doesn’t know though whatever he got it was probably well deserved.

Shiro can’t help but to feel uncomfortable as he walks back to his room, carrying Keith's temporary clothes while the smaller teen follows behind silently. It doesn’t feel right; the deafening silence between them but he knows he can’t do anything...not yet if he can help it. He knew first hand of the mind tricks Zarkon and his Galra witch were capable of and how far they will go. And he knows-God did he know-it was going to take some delicate maneuvering to not set him off. 

The black pilot didn’t have to imagine the pain: the mind numbing agony and cruel torture methods. Didn’t have to fake that he knew because he **did** know. There are brief moments where he believes he is back with the Galra when he doesn't pay attention and mind drifts to the past. Fighting for survival in that blasted arena for their entertainment and having to beat his way through each opponent in fear of being executed on the spot. The horrible ripping of his right arm off to replace it with the alien tech. Haggar was very...enthusiastic and thorough when she severed the nerves. Shiro’s lucky it was his military training that helped him survive all those months but Keith wasn’t like him. He could push past the memories; the feeling of helplessness and fear because that’s what he was trained to do. But Keith...he's young, late teens, but never saw a true battlefeild until he had become a paladin. 

He never experienced the gun fire, the death of a friend...the feeling of helplessness. Shiro knew it, lived it more times than he could count. But Keith was strong. He may be hard headed most times and there wasn't a challenge he couldn't bulldoze through. This fragile person walking like a ghost behind him could very well snap and attack again like when he first woke up if something set him off. The sensible thing, in Shiro’s opinion, is to try and ease him down from whatever mindspace he has himself in to get the old Keith back.

It's going to take time, the elder was sure of that, however he's very good when it comes go patience...he has to in order to lead them after all. 

“In here Keith,” he says over his shoulder when he stops in front of his quarters. The sliding doors swish open, allowing them access inside the sleeping space without prompting. Much like Keith’s room it’s simple and doesn’t have any items beside the bed, dresser, night table and chair. There is a slight difference though: papers are tacked to the wall with reports Allura has had him analyzing over the past week along with several thought out defense strategies against Zarkon and his army. They aren’t important to Shiro right now and he practically rips anything Galrin off the wall in an attempt to not let Keith see them. 

There was no telling how badly Keith will react to seeing the familiar purple signia all over the place.

“You can sit in the bed,” Shiro prompts with an encouraging smile after shoving the scraps of paper into a drawer. Allura can yell at him later for destroying her hard work but he figured he had a pretty good excuse as to why he had to do it.

Keith looks towards it with something akin to distrust flashing briefly across his face before it disappears. This is the second time someone has offered him to sit somewhere that wasn’t on the floor and it’s suspicious because he is never supposed to be on the bed, no matter how good he is. But he can’t argue where he can and cannot sit so he does as he is told. It’s easier for him to follow orders rather than rebel-the scars on his back a reminder. He idly wonders how Allura is doing: the only one who has yet to be heartlessly murdered in a raging fit to try and control him.

Shiro is still out on a mission from Haggar and this man before him looks strangely like him. Illusion or not, an order is an order and he must obey.

“Okay, can you dress yourself?” The “real” Shiro asks holding out the set of clothes.

Dress? Why would he need to do that? He isn’t allowed such luxurious unless he did something good. Keith doesn’t feel like he deserves them after displeasing the Lance double (Haggar has done a marvelous job with this test). Wait...wasn’t he dead…? Oh, she seems to have slipped a little in her illusion.

Everything is so confusing to him.

Keith doesn’t want to think. It’s easier when he doesn't have to.

“Keith, are you alright?”

At the call of his name the young man looks at Shiro.

“Can you answer my question?”

 **Can.** Meaning it isn’t an order. Which meant he was absolutely **not** allowed to answer.

It seems like five minutes go by without either of them saying a word. Shiro begins to feel anxious, standing awkwardly whilst Keith stares at him with unblinking eyes. How Lance got him to do anything was a miracle when he isn’t even reacting to anything he says. 

 _Remember Keith isn’t himself right now,_ the leader thinks to himself as he slowly places the clothes onto the sheets. He has to keep in mind he’s walking a trip wire in his own mind and he probably can’t comprehend he’s only there to help. They all were. It just seemed they had to be a bit more considerate of Keith’s reactions. Releasing a soft sigh, Shiro takes a seat on the bed. He tenses when Keith does but quickly releases his muscles and smiles instead as encouragingly as he can. "I’m not going to hurt you. You know that right?”

Purple-grey eyes flicker towards him and Shiro feels a glimmer of something that makes his smile more genuine. It’s not a lot, but he’ll take it. He’ll take just about anything if it meant that the paladin he has grown fond of was still in there.

“Come on,” he huffs in amusement. “Let’s get you dressed. You must be freezing right now.”

He makes the red paladin stand in front of him so he can slip the oversized shirt over his head. Shiro is a lot broader in the shoulders and the fabric slips down Keith’s shoulder department, the large fabric falling down his left revealing a prominent collarbone. It only serves as a reminder that Keith probably starved as a retaliation tactic during his capture.The black paladin had to tamper down the displeasure he feels at the thought he had to resort to such moves to survive as he takes hold of the pants.

Shiro knows he clenching them a bit too tightly, the material bunching in his hands without him realizing it. He only notices when a gentle hand is placed over his own, halting the shaking almost immediately that he realizes it.

Slender fingers dance across the top of his skin, leaving a tingling sensation in it’s wake. Shiro doesn’t move as Keith takes a sudden interest in his hand, exploring with the touch of a curious child. The older man keeps his eyes downcast and watches silently as the pads stop at his wrist. He’s confused on why he’s so fascinated by his skin; maybe because he feels a sense of connection to him through touch or he’s amazed they are so different in color. Why he's doing it is odd but he allows Keith to keep touching his hand for a while longer. 

Moving slowly as possible, Shiro takes his hand away so Keith can take the cloth from his grip to examine them. It’s a strange way to go about it and he tries not to laugh when the young man lowers them onto the ground so he can slip a leg inside. He struggles to pull them over his legs and it’s only when he nearly trips does the black lion pilot take pity on him to help. When they are finally covered Keith returns to looking blank as ever, his expression flattening to erase whatever emotion he had only seconds ago.

Shiro doesn’t know what makes him do it, but he doesn’t have time to stop and think before he’s humming low in his throat, threading a hand through silky raven locks. "Everything is going to get better, Keith,” he mumurs lightly. He’s not sure if it’s okay but when Keith doesn’t immediately pull away or flinch from his touch he takes it as a good sign that he’s doing something right.

The red paladin seemed to only respond to soft tones, praise and affection. It seems to make him calmer somehow. They can focus on getting the old Keith back but lord only knew it was going to take a great amount of patience if he was as skittish and wary of them. If they can keep from arguing for ten minutes then maybe they can accomplish something-

His thoughts come to a screeching halt in surprise in the next moment that passes. He was so focused on his thoughts, he failed to notice that Keith had leaned into him until he felt his mouth pressing against his, warm and hesitant, almost unsure in a way that reminded him of an nervous kitten. Unsure because he didn’t know if it was alright.

Shiro forces himself to not react, even though his first instinct was to push Keith away. Internally, he was screaming bloody murder. His mind went in fifty directions on how wrong it was for his trusted teammate to be kissing him and fuck, how the hell was he supposed to react to something like this? It’s not like he could push him off. But what could have prompted such an action when there were no signs of even…

Lance suddenly comes to mind and Shiro swore he was going to have a very **long** talk with his subordinate because now he realizes why the blue pilot was so eager to send Keith his way. His sudden nervousness, the way he stood stiffly as if something was wrong but he was to embarrassed to actually say anything...a little forewarning would have been nice.

As gently as possible, Shiro pulls back earning a slightly confused look from the other. It’s the first expression that wasn’t fear or anxiety and it was welcoming change...despite the circumstances.

“Did I displease you, Master?”

The blood in Shiro’s vein seems to freeze. Several things happen at once-the older male jerks back as if struck, swear words flying from his mouth before he can stop his tongue. Keith flinches back violently at his outburst, tripping over his pants leg making him fall back. Before he can hit the ground, Shiro seemed to remember himself and grabs the front of his shirt to yank him back towards him. He hadn’t counted on being too forceful because it causes the startled youth to collide into his chest, his head knocking against Shiro’s chin hard enough for him to bite the inside of his cheek.

They fall back, Keith’s legs sprawling out on either side of Shiro’s hips.

“Owwwwwww…” the scarred man groans, rubbing his jaw.

He really shouldn’t have reacted that badly but anyone else in his shoes would have done the same thing. It nearly stopped his heart and was so unexpected-being called master? That was probably the most disturbing thing to ever come out of Keith’s mouth and he remembered the younger man saying some pretty fucked up shit when they were in the academy together.

Keith shivers from above him, the vibrations racking against his own with such ferocity, Shiro thinks he’s seizing. He reaches out, pauses only because he’s uncertain if he should even try then gets over it and puts a comforting hand over the top of his head once more. The reaction is instant. The shaking stops and he calms, pressing against his chest and rubbing his chin against his shirt.

“It’s alright Keith,” the black lion murmurs as he pets the young man. He didn’t mean to scare him, he truly hadn’t. This was a good learning experience through; learning what made Keith tick and how to subdue him without the use of violence. He seems to enjoy being touched on the head and held but disliked loud, sudden noises and threatening stances.

_Urgh, my head hurts…_

“Shiro, is Keith done dressing?” Allura’s voice comes from the loudspeakers, breaking this thoughts. “Hunk has come back with food and has prepared some to eat now if he’s ready…”

Keith tenses and Shiro runs his hand soothingly down his back. “We’ll be there in a few minutes,” he confirms.

It takes a great effort to sit up with Keith clinging to him. He carefully peels his arms away and looks straight into his eyes. “We’re going to go get something to eat now, okay?” he says as he adjusts his shirt.

A small nod before Keith is bowing his head submissively.

Disappointment crawls it’s way up Shiro’s throat but there’s nothing he can do. As he guides him back out, the black lion realizes...how the hell was he going to explain Keith’s behavior to everyone else?

That’s a conversation he’s definitely not looking forward too.

**To be Continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 will be out either later tonight or Sunday cause I'm slow at typing.


	11. Arena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time line? What time line? I’ve never heard of such a thing...yeah, I’m totally fucking up my story by not putting out timelines on this shit but you know what? Screw it! I honestly don't think about stuff like that until the very last minute lmfao maybe I should if anyone is interested...check the bottom AN for the very poorly planned out timeline XD 
> 
> This takes place about 3 weeks after Keith's capture. He has not been branded yet. I'm so fucking up the timeline flashbacks and look at all the fucks i give...NONE ;D

**Chapter Eleven:** Arena

_“Get on your feet boy.”_

_The rough growl from Xiola made Keith scowl at her from the corner of his cell and he refused with an annoyed glare towards her. She glared right back at him, unfazed by his cold look._

_“I said move!” The twin Druid snapped impatiently after a few more seconds passed in silence. “Emperor Zarkon wants to see you and if you aren’t up in the next ten seconds human, I’m dragging you out by your hair again.”_

_Keith sneered at her, “go ahead and try” before turning away pointedly._

_He heard Xiola sigh in exasperation but refused to look toward her. Hearing her mumble something Keith only had a moment to react but even then it was too late to stop the yellow masked alien from leaping the short distance across the room and grabbing a fistful of his mangled hair. She yanked him to his feet, pulling a howl of pain from the human captive._

_“Warned you,”she sang mockingly as she all but dragged him across the floor out of his cell and down the hall._

_Keith struggled the entire time, cursing her and every Galra that was born to death by disembodiment._

_“Oh shut up you,” she hissed, turning a sharp left. It was in the opposite direction of Zarkon’s throne room and Keith bared his teeth in agitation. “I asked nicely for you to get up: you wanted it the hard way!”_

_“Weren’t you taking me to your precious_ **_Master_ ** _?” Keith spat the last word out like it was poison. He had been down the hall enough times to know this one certainly did not lead to the throne room._

_Xiola glanced behind her briefly before pulling him further. “I’ve been ordered to take you to the arena where Emperor Zarkon will see you fight to the death, you pathetic worm. Hopefully someone will put you down like you deserve for interfering with our master's plans.”_

_“Oh cry me a fucking river,” Keith snapped back despite the pain in his scalp. “Maybe if your leader wasn’t so Goddamn childish-AARGH!”_

_Xiola smirked and loosened her nails a tad from stabbing into his head further. “What was that?” she sang mockingly. “I didn’t quite catch it.”_

_For once Keith kept his mouth shut._

_“Thought so. Now I’m going to let you go so you can walk on your own but if you try_ **_anything_ ** _I will break your legs myself and watch you try and defend yourself against our new champion.”_

_“Whatever,” Keith grumbled. He would play along just to see what was going to happen. Part of him suspected the druid was trying to get to him, knowing full well they loved playing mind tricks. She was most likely wasting time until Zarkon got pissed that they were taking too long to get to him. But there was another part of Keith that slowly started to worry-Shiro was made to fight like a Gladiator for the Galra’s entertainment. If he was going in to fight the new champion after him...he was so fucked._

_Keith was good in hand to hand combat but no where near Shiro’s level if he was up against a living creature that earned their rank through survival._

_They continued to walk in silence after that until they reached a large metal door at the end of the hallway. The female druid held up her palm against the control panel and after a brief moment it slid open._

_“Have fun,” she purred pushing him into the dark room and shutting the door behind him before he could protest._

_Keith stumbled in the darkness, landing on his knees with a pained grunt. He growled to himself as he moved his hands slowly around him, feeling for some sort of wall before he attempted to stand. It was quiet...too quiet. Don’t tell him she just locked him in a small room for the hell of it?!_

_He jumped at the sudden whir of an engine starting up, the floor beneath him rising up. Keith began to feel the cold claws of panic in his chest as it continued upward, forcing his eyes closed against the inevitable. It was followed by a loud groan as the ceiling above parted to allow in light, illuminating the darkened tunnel. There was a sudden gust of cool air, enough of a warning for Keith to open his eyes before the platform slowed and locked into place with a loud clang. He rapidly blinked the spots from his eyes, having been trapped in partial darkness for so long the sudden burst of light was disorientating. It was then he heard the loud roaring of a crowd. Keith’s eyes narrowed into slits at the cheering and realized, with growing horror, Xiola was not playing when she said he was going to fight an an a actual fucking arena._

_It resembled a coliseum he had once seen in history books-the ground looked like it was made of hard packed dirt equal to concrete besides it's light brown texture. The walls rose above him about 80ft and circled around the 90ft sized field with enough room for those in the stand to watch but not interfere. Pillars aligned underneath sections of the stand to keep part of it afloat from the arena grounds and Keith suspected even if one was to go through them, the crowd wouldn’t go down with it._   
_  
_ In the distance, Keith made out several other beings in the arena beside himself and his stomach nearly dropped when he saw that they were collared like animals. He reached up instinctively to the cold steel against his own skin. The material went unnoticed when he was first brought before Zarkon upon his capture; it wasn’t as thick and made with steel compared to what he saw the other captives wearing. He never paid attention to it simply because it wasn’t noticeable like the rest. Why that was, he had no fucking idea but he wasn’t about to ponder it.

_He turned back to look toward the crowd, glaring angrily at the people that were cheering from their places in their seats. Most were Galra soldiers by their purple fur and yellow eye, but what made him sick were the similar aliens he had encountered through his paladin rescue missions. They didn’t take up too much space but the fact there were other species eager to see the blood of the innocent spill made him quiver in suppressed rage. How the fuck could they enjoy watching their own people fight like dogs like animals for their own pleasure?_

_Keith frowned when his eyes found Zarkon. Bike rose in his throat at the sight of Allura by his side, chained and collared at his feet in dirty robes not even fit for the poorest of criminals. To bad Keith was far away and a crowd was blocking his way-he would have strangled him. The Galra’s emperor raised an arm, silencing the crowd almost instantly as the towering alien rose to stand from his ivory throne. The paladin’s disgust clearly showed on his face because Zarkon smirked down at him from where he sat-his sharpened teeth revealing behind his cruel smile._

_“Fellow Galra’s and esteemed guest, I welcome you to the battle arena! On these grounds I have prepared a special treat for our amusement,” Zarkon’s voice echoed in the arena once the audience quieted down. “I have acquired none other than one of the Voltron’s skilled paladin though his is nothing less than a inferior, hairless creature with no true ability, I feel it would be worth watching how he fares against the might of our Galra champion Lan!”_

_Keith tensed at the jeers and laughter when that was mentioned, and he swore under his breath as the audience booed at the sight of him, but he didn't really care. It didn’t matter if they wanted him to win or lose as long as someone got their guts splattered across the room. Some looked like they were wanting the deaths to be brutal so they could smear it against their skin as some form of sick decorative paint._   
_  
_ He tuned out the rest if the announcement, until he heard the thunderous cheering of the crowd.

_Looking ahead to see the center of the arena opening the blood-stained sand once more, the aliens nearest him whimpered loud enough for him to hear over the massive cries of joy. The cheers grew near deafening as a figure emerged from the platform; scrawny and bony with little to no muscles under its skin, the creature had the outward appearance of a male though Keith couldn’t be certain. His face was very humanoid with olive skin, shaggy brown hair and despite the sunken blue eyes, blood stained teeth and limbs elongated inhumanly it was massive in size. He blinked his eyes slowly over his prey without moving his head. They stopped at Keith for longer than the human was comfortable with and slowly, he looked away though his eyes never really left him. A thin black tail swirled around his ankle before coming to rest against the owner’s shoulder._

_Like most of the fighters, Lan was dressed in loose fitting brown pants and a short sleeved shirt. Unlike most, his looked brand new which meant this was his first fight with so many opponents at once._   
_  
_ Keith could sense the power the creature had from where he stood-it was a crushing force, the atmosphere densing and making the air unbreathable. He held the alien’s gaze though, despite the fear clawing in his gut. Fucking shit, he had to fight that thing?! By the look of those massive clawed hands, he shouldn’t go anywhere near it if he didn’t want to be gorged.

 _Weapons were thrown into the arena by the joyful crowd screaming for death, and Keith was startled when one landed close enough for him to pick up. To his utter disbelief, his knife gleamed at him with an eerily calm presence that reminded him he had to do to get out of here. There was no doubt in his mind Allura had thrown it for him (which made him grateful that she had a good throwing arm)._   
  
_"You may begin!"_   
  
_A loud gong sounded and, Keith hesitated for a split second before springing off his perch just as a war hammer came crashing down onto the spot he just vacated._   
_  
_ Keith stumbled to the left as he avoided another swing, this time from an axe a scaly reptilian alien was wielding. He noticed, not surprising though, the fighters were more or less going after him deliberately. Or at least the one’s that were brave enough. If one happened to get in the way of a weapon meant for him well...there was no mercy to be given to the foolish.

_Something hit him against the shoulder and Keith twisted around, grabbing the hand that held the end of the short carving knife and punched the furred creature in the face with all his might sending it tumbling onto the ground. The crowd roared in approval when another competitor stabbed through the fallen attacker with its trident without giving a chance for them to get back up._

_Despite his need to get justice for the alien, Keith knew he wasn’t going to live if he focused on the much weaker ones. This was a fight to the death and there was no fucking way he was dying now. Someone grabbed for Keith’s leg but in a swift motion, the human kicked at the man, feeling his foot come in contact with the alien's head just before he hit the ground._

_He could hear screaming and shouting as the other captives battled against their own opponents. Keith wasn’t all that concerned when the champion was rapidly disposing its own victims with ease because sooner or later that massive thing was coming for him next._

_“Keith!”_

_An object flew to his feet and he didn’t stop to glance at it before scooping it up and twisting away from the claws of a massive horned beast. There was too much going on for him to fully inspect what object Allura had thrown at him but from the texture and familiar weight it was the red helmet he had taken away from him when Zarkon had stripped him of his uniform. Without thought he slipped it over his head, the system activating without prompting. The function was limited (obvious from the static that went in and out when he tried to use some of the features) but it served as an excellent head protection when some idiot swung at his head their fist._

_He flipped back, landing on his feet just as an anthropomorphic lion rushed him like a bull. Keith did it without thinking-he brought his knife up and tore it across the beast's throat. The crowd went wild._

_Blood spurted from the open wound, spraying across the helmet’s screen and making his vision blurred. Keith didn’t stop, stabbing the alien again in between the eyes and yanking back when it fell lifeless to the ground._

_Keith moved with a purpose then; who he didn’t outright injure he made sure they stayed down with a well placed kick to the leg to keep them there. He turned after punching someone in the gut because they tried stabbing through his helmet, his vision suddenly taken by a long body of tan. Galra’s champion regarded him with a cool look, his eyes a painful reminder to the dark blue that once belonged to his fellow paladin._

_He blinked, the sudden realization making him nauseous. Those eyes...far away they didn’t mean much but now that the creature was within sight for him to see every detail clearly, the alien had_ **_Lance’s fucking eyes in it’s head!_ **

_There was no time for him to get infuriated when Lan s_ _wung his powerful arm fast, faster than Keith had expected, and his clawed hand caught him straight across his exposed chin._

_Keith went down with a cry._

_The crowd screams in encouragement for the Galra champion._

_Pain radiated from the spot in his jaw like a drum and he was grateful the thing didn’t dislocate it from the force of the blow. It was like he wasn’t even trying to hit him! He held his face, gritting his teeth against the pain. If Lan wasn’t using his full strength to hit him then Keith was definitely fucked if he started actually trying._

_A long shadow cast over him, and he knew he had to get up. With a deep breath, wiping the dripping blood from his face, he rolled out the way when Lan brought his fist down towards his head. Keith allowed his training and instinct to guide his next action as he pivoted and rolled, twisting low to the ground and kicking the arm that was stretched out as hard as he could, satisfied when he heard more than felt the bone break against his foot._

_There was no way in Voltron he was going to win in hand-to-hand with Lan but if he could effectively make him unable to fight, then maybe he had a chance. He slashed at the champion’s neck with his blade but in a blink, Lan was gone from his spot and Keith swore out loud, staggering to his feet. The fucker was fast._

_Just his fucking luck._

_And he didn’t seem all that bothered that Keith snapped the bone in his upper arm. He stood calmly when he reappeared a few feet away. Lan lifted the broken limb and in a quick motion, snapped it right back into place as if it was just a leg piece that had gotten loose during construction. He eyed the now fixed part with little interest before his gaze shifted to Keith._

_A split second on stillness, then the Galra was gone from his spot._

_Lan toyed with him then. He disappeared before Keith could make out exactly where he was before slashing across any part of him that he managed to grab. Cuts appeared rapidly across Keith’s body; clothes tearing and blood spilling freely from the open wounds. A hit to the head knocks the paladin helmet clear off his head and he hits the ground painfully hard. He’s scrambling up to grab it and put it back over his head._

_He could taste blood in his mouth, having bit the inside of his cheek when he fell._

_It was disgusting; bitter like copper and slimy. He rolled it around his mouth before spitting it out onto the bloody ground uncaring, preparing for another strike._

_It stung his eyes and stained the rags he wore from his injuries. The smell was as worse as the taste. The same, but somehow worse. The red just clung to his body like a tight saran wrap, suffocating and restricting his movements making it harder and harder to keep up with the swift moving Galra. There was a sudden flash of black besides him, and he moved just before a deadly flash of blue hit him._

_Blood flowed._

_There was no time to dodge or defend against Lan’s second strike._

_The claws break though Keith’s pitiful defense throws him upward across the arena. His helmet cracks completely off as he crashed through one of the pillars holding the stand up. Rubble and a cloud of smoke spew from where he hit the side and then he goes through a second, smaller tower behind the first, breaking through both._

_The towers crumbled but the stand remains untouched. Unimaginable pain tears through him, his lungs protesting as he tries to pant through the worst of it. He knew something was broken in his ribs. How the fuck had he managed to survive that Keith didn’t know and he didn’t fucking care. His prisoner clothes barely covered him anymore and were definitely not effective for cushioning a blow like that._

_A long rope grabbed him and pulled him from the rubble. He bit back a whine as he was thrust back into the arena, wincing when he saw it was Lan’s tail that had him in his grasp. Snarling, and fighting through the stabbing agony, he jabbed the point of his weapon into it’s side. He was released instantly and it was his will to not land on his back that kept him from doing so._

_Keith struggled to stay up, holding his ancestor's hunting knife in front of him as he faced Lan._

_“I refuse to die here!”_

_The words, spoken, gave him more strength to fight on. They deepened his resolve to win because if he didn’t...Keith didn’t think about it._

_The refusal to accept his fate made Lan suddenly angry. Haggar had told him much about the paladin, and how he along with more of his kind-humans-were fighting against Emperor Zarkon’s might. How suicidal and idiotic. And just as the human rose in defiance to his rule, he now dared to refuse to back down from the greatest Galra creation. He doesn’t let it show on his face though; he remained stoic, his facial expression devoid of any acknowledgment._

_“Pathetic,” he finally said softly with detachment, his voice hoarse from disuse._

_Then he was moving._

_Keith managed to pierce him, not enough to hurt but still it was a hit, with a forceful plunge against his side. The fire in those blue-gray eyes made Lan strike harder. Knife and claws clashed against each other as they met. Sparks fly. Each move they made was now calculated and executed within milliseconds of the last blow._

_More blood split from inflicted wounds._

_Heartbeats quickened as they pushed against each other, neither one willing to back down from the other’s might._

_The rush of battle was intoxicating._

_To intoxicating._

_Keith found himself lost in the rhythm as he ducked and weaved out the way of Lan’s sharp talons but he couldn’t keep up. Not with a creature that barely had a scratch on him while he was riddled with slash marks across every inch of his skin._

_With a well-aimed attack, Lan raised his arm and made a jab at Keith’s wounded side. Just as he predicted, the human moved to dodge and that was his downfall._

_Allura screamed in raw outrage when Lan’s tail lashed out wrapping around Keith’s neck like a noose._

_The symbol of death._

_The crowd’s roar for his death is faded to Keith’s ear as he choked on air when the tail tightened without mercy. He grabbed at it and tore his nails into it’s leathery side but it only put more pressure against his adam apple._

_From the sideline, Zarkon stared on with a gleeful expression. He raised his fist sideways, the audience silencing._

_One heartbeat._

_Two._

_The Galra emperor gave them a thumbs down and the arena exploded, urging the champion to follow through with his silent order._

_There was no hesitation in the Galra’s next move._

_The blow he delivered was deadly. He lifted his right arm, the tips of his fingers glowing brightly with blue electricity. Keith’s eyes widened at what they indicated and he struggled harder._

_He couldn’t die. Not here. Not with his last sight being the flash of blue as his executor._

_Just as Lan sent the bolt towards him, Keith moved without thinking. He sliced through the tail this time, falling to the ground on his back with a wheezed gasp._

_Everyone boos but Keith doesn’t give a shit. At least he’s alive._

_“Well, it would appear the human has some fight left in him,” Zarkon’s voice thunders over the crowd. “What do you say Princess Allura? Shall we pardon your brave paladin for his stubbornness or shall I grant the horde have their chance against him?”_

_“Pardon,” Allura spat at him through gritted teeth._

_“Well there you have it! The paladin lives!” Zarkon roared. “But we can’t just let his defiance go unpunished. Rise and kneel before me paladin like the filth you are and show me your gratitude for sparing your life.”_

_Keith heard the warning in the Galra’s tone and he attempted to roll off his back onto his side so he could “kneel”. It took more energy than he expected but finally, he managed to do what was ordered._

_He kept his head bowed, partly due to exhaustion and because he didn’t want to see the satisfied leer on the Emperor’s face._

_“Good boy.”_

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So starting from the season 1 finale, Keith was held captive by Zarkon for roughly 4 months (which are the flashbacks). In that time, he had endured:  
> -Painful hallucinations  
> -Torture  
> -Body Modifications (the brand)  
> -Battle in the arena  
> -Emotional trauma  
> -Other shit that could make a grown man cry for death
> 
> Shiro spent about six hours alone with the black and red lion after being separated in the worm hole.  
> Hunk roughly a week and a half (the party on the planet lasted that long)  
> Pidge roughly five days  
> Lance was a month  
> (over all Allura spent 1 month+1 week5 1/2 days+6hrs. looking for the paladin's in total before looking for Keith, which if my math is somewhat right, they found Keith the fourth month he was in captivity.  
> After Keith was found he spent the next two weeks healing, not counting the time he woke up freaking out. 
> 
> MEANING it has been 3 weeks since Keith had been rescued and it has only been ONE DAY since he has been awake. Hopefully this clears up any confusion if you had any  
> Next chapter the story will continue!


	12. Supper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's on vacation and now has more time to type!? :D  
> This rock, right here!
> 
> Okay, so quick reason to why I was gone for so long...my nana had to have a hysterectomy and I had to take care of her. It was very time consuming and I barely slept because I was basically her nurse for the entire time. She's also diabetic so that was fun trying to keep her calm while I did that (her pain pills really made her messed up). But since my aunt came up from Texas she's going to take care of her until I get back since my younger brother in NC is graduating high school so I'll be here for 20 DAYS! 
> 
> Which will give me basically every day to type because my mom is awesome and won't ask me to do anything :D
> 
> Yay me!
> 
> Oh, and a little warning...I seem to be tormenting Pidge a lot and don't misunderstand! I actually like her but someone has to suffer besides Kieth. So, just a little forewarning...Pidge gets hurt again.  
> Un'beted.

**Chapter Twelve:** Supper

No one knows what to say when Shiro finally enters the dining hall with Keith in tow. 

Lance tries to smile, but it doesn’t look normal-forced and somewhat strained with his teeth showing and mouth lopsided. When the incident in the shower comes to mind, he grimaces and turns away before anyone can see because he’s too ashamed to look any of them in the eye. After he had left Keith with Shiro, he had taken his own shower to try and cool his sudden arousal once they had left. It was humiliating how quickly he had grasped his swelling cock and jacked off to the image of Keith on his knees before him. There was no way he could even begin to explain how wrong (how  _ right _ ) it felt. 

Keith isn’t himself now, and the fact Lance had thought of how amazing it would feel if he had sucked him off in the shower filled him with self loathing after that he couldn’t look anyone in the eyes without wanting to punch himself in the face. 

Unfortunately, the older man notices his sudden change and reminds himself he still needs to talk to the blue paladin later as he motions for Keith to take a seat across from the olive skinned teen. When he is sure his fellow paladin is not about to do anything that might cause an alarm to go off in everyone’s head once he sits, he takes the seat beside him. It isn’t that Shiro doesn’t trust Keith-far from it. He’s more worried than suspicious after that he had experienced being alone with him for the short ten minutes in his room.

Hunk grins as encouragingly as he can, ignorant to the tense air between his friends, and gestures happily in front of them. Spread across the white table is an array of different colored fruits, vegetables, bread, green slop and meat. There is a plain bowl of milky soup before Keith that isn’t decorated with anything fancy other than a small strip of cooked meat that is still pink in the middle and a cup of water. He had figured, when he had went onto the planet in search of something that Keith would find pleasing after being starved, his stomach had shrunk exponentially during his capture. After talking with the natives, Hunk found something that wouldn't unsettle his stomach and made digesting food better.

It was a milk based soup from the planet's cows called Milk Bone Soup. All it took was a bone from their sheep, milk from their herds and herbs from their garden. It was all boiled in a large pot until it thickened and drained with only the broth remaining. There’s only small pieces of chopped vegetables inside that weren’t visible to the naked eye and pinches of seasoning to give it some taste if needed. The farmer insisted he make it if he wanted his friend to get better so Hunk had in hopes it would help get Keith’s appetite back.

He even created enough to last an entire week if Keith couldn’t keep anything else down. Hunk may have been “slow” on certain things such as his friends emotions and when there was a time and place to be cautious, he was going to prove he can be just as useful when it involves a fellow paladin.

“I learned from a medical book that you have to introduce food slowly when I took some classes on Earth,” Hunk explained with a sheepish smile when he gets confused looks from his teammates. “If we introduce it to fast into his stomach...he may die. One of the villagers from the planet helped me make this for him. Not exactly five star cooking but it will do in this situation. He needs lots of vitamins, protein and electrolytes but since we don’t have gatorade this is the best I can do.”

“It’s alright Hunk. We must thank the inhabitants for their hospitality and for giving you this recipe the next time we go down to visit,” Allura beams. She turns her attention to Keith, her smile kind as she eyes him. “Keith, why don’t you try it and tell us what you think? Maybe he can make some for all of us as well.”

Her words earn soft laughter from her paladins but it doesn’t make the red pilot move. Not right away. In fact, Keith stares at the bowl with disinterest, as if it somehow offended him to the point he just refuses to try a sample. He doesn’t want to touch it.

He can’t even look at it but with so many  _ fake _ eyes watching him, he knows he has too or something worse will come his way. Maybe if he does what they want, they will go away faster.

Reaching for the spoon, his hand shakes visible as he picks it up.

" _It's not poisoned,"_ He hears Xiola’s wicked glee as he dips his utensil into the mix and brings it to his lips _. "Our chef prepared it especially for you by Zarkon’s orders."_

Keith swallows without tasting, his throat tight as he tries to not throw it back up onto the table. It isn’t helping that Pidge is speaking with excitement like the rest of them-happy and pleased he is attempting to consume his meal.  He wants to laugh at the injustice he is being put through but Keith is too tired to fight the order to do whatever they tell him. Allura, the real Allura, is still being captive. If he plays along, just a little bit longer, than he can save them all...well...what was left of the team but it’s better than nothing.

No longer hesitant, he robotically sips each mouthful of soup all the while trying to not burst into a fit because all he can really taste is Pidge’s flesh on his tongue. He’ll force every bite of this disgusting slop if it meant he can catch all these fakes off guard long enough to get a key out of here. 

_ "We used her organs to flavor the roux," Kiola inputs joyously. _

Keith’s vision blurs, the phantom touch of the Druid against his shoulder making it impossible to focus. Her cold laughter fills his ears as he sees a hand dip into his bowl to languishly stir it. Around him the fakes all start talking, conversing with one another unaware of the growing fear rising within the red pilot. They smile at him, speak to him but he can’t hear beyond the roaring thunder in his head as he chokes on his next spoonful.

It tastes like putrid meat.

But time and time again he keeps eating until there is nothing left. 

_ “Are you ready for your desert paladin? _ ”

“Keith, do you want some more?” Pidge asks. 

Her voice is the loudest despite her speaking quietly. It’s young and inquiring, just like he remembers when he first encountered her that fateful day.  

Then Keith sees it-the severed head of the green lions pilot, gazing at him eyelessly, filling the bowl before him. 

“ _What’s wrong Keith? Lion got your tongue?”_ ** _Pidge’s_** severed head snickers with a mouthful of rotting teeth. “ _Have some more: you enjoyed me the first time what’s wrong with another taste of your friend? Bet I’ll taste good a second time!”_

Keith whimpers, the sound quiet in the back of his throat.

It prompts the team to stop and look at him with concern. 

“Keith, are you alright?” Allura’s worried tone breaks through his vision but Keith can’t do anything. “Maybe you should try something else if you don’t want anymore.”

The suggestion is already there in his head-the fake Pidge looking at him will probably taste just as  _ delicious.  _ He was forced to consume her by those fucking twins, under Zarkon’s orders, and made him eat every fucking bit of her like a goddamn animal while they silently laughed in his face until he was done. So, it’s only natural to return the favor by doing the same to the Pidge in front of him because he knows she’s dead and this was all just a trick to get him pliable for the Galra Emperor to use in his army.

If he can just get hold of a knife…

Keith knows how to get it. He has done it before to Xiola when she tried to get him to eat again. He paid her back by twisting her neck. 

Too bad her sister had came in at that exact moment and revived her twin with ease since she only just died.

He doesn’t say anything at first, his head bending slightly. His shoulder starts shaking and Shiro, being the closest, puts a gentle hand on his shoulders to ease him as he surpasses silent sobs. 

Wrong move. 

“Keith, please we want to help…”

The red paladin jerks violently at the touch, throwing his arm out and knocking Hulk's carefully prepared food across the table in his haste to scramble away from all of them. He grabs the knife besides Shiro’s plate and before anyone can grab him, he’s leaping across the table, eyes wide and gleaming with madness as he tackles the shorter pilot out of her chair. 

_ Yes. YES!  _ If Keith was forced to partake in his friend, then he will devour every morsel of this illusion Pidge to  **show them all** two can play that game of tricks. How would they feel if he cut her up her body and ate her from the inside out? He wasn’t going to be beaten down by their fucking lies! And all he had to do was cut off the face and then he won’t feel bad about what he will do to her next.

Someone screams, probably her, but Keith just laughs crazily as he brings the sharp utensil to her forehead. He smiles down at her and Pidge is beyond horrified. She grabs his hand and pushes against him as he forces the steel towards her. 

“What the fuck Keith?!” Lance shouts, jumping from his chair to grab the red pilot from behind. 

Keith snarls, whirling around.

He slashes the blade toward him. Luckily Lance has the hindsight to move his head out of the way before it could cut across his cheek. 

“You all made me eat her!” Keith hisses in disdain, turning to the body he’s pinning down. “You all made me eat my friend so I’m returning the favor!”

His words stun them momentarily. 

It gives him the leverage he needs and Keith stabs the green pilot in the arm. Pidge shrieks in pain as the blade pierces through her flesh and muscles. 

“Get him off of me!” She hollers, tears streaming from her eyes. Fuck! 

It hurt. 

It hurt more than when she had broken her arm when she was seven and Matt had to put it back into place because they weren’t supposed to be climbing that stupid tree in their backyard.

It hurt more then when she had watched the news and discovered her brother had went missing on that stupid expedition with Shiro. 

Shiro leaps over the table instead of going around and together, helps Lance pull the struggling Keith off of her.

“Let me go you fakes!” Keith yells, kicking and trying to break their hold. Shiro and Lance hold him tight while he yells profanities and promises to kill them all when they let him go. Allura runs to Pidge’s side, ordering Hunk to grab a spare medical kit in the healing room. The Altean princess lays a comforting hand on her youngest Voltron member, a single tear spilling from her eye. 

How could she have let this happen? She was supposed to be their guide, their source of strength...yet she had just stood there letting Keith damage Pidge like this.

“I...I don’t blame him…” Pidge chuckles weakly. “He’s...he’s obviously not himself.”

Allura laughs under her breath. At least someone is looking on the bright side.

As she presses against the wound, Allura turns to check up on the other three pilots and is stunned at what she sees-Keith is sobbing against Shiro’s chest, his face buried so she can’t see and she’s muttering incoherently under his breath. She can make out some words, “sorry...not again...I’ll be good...no more…”

Her heart just about broke and she turns away quickly. 

She didn’t realize how truly damaged Keith was.

**To be Continued...**


	13. Choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. I am so sorry guys for the long wait! I have had so much going on in my life I don't even know where to start! I am alive though, I survived the bitch Irma lol but yeah, short chapter this time. I actually lost most of my chapters cause my computer decided to say "bitch, I'm out" and all my files went with it. So I had to do a lovely factory reset via best buy and that made me depressed to all hell and unmotivated to type. But I'm back. 
> 
> NOTE: I am NOT following any events from Season 1. Shiro never went missing. I am completely IGNORING everything. Remember guys, this is an Alternate Universe.
> 
> Sorry for the long note and thank you all who left me kudos, faved, commented and overall stuck with me even though I am a shit updater ;~;

**Chapter Thirteen**

Tension has become a norm between the team now.

It seems that no matter what they do, they cannot shake the feeling of uncertainty whenever they are in the same room together. Even before everything went to shit, they were all tolerant or generally happy about being around each other’s company but now, it feels like someone placed dynamite around the metaphorical bridge of their combined strength and blew the fragile piece of construction to bits.

Everyone is either staring anxiously at the sleeping body of Keith beside Lance, or the other half is glaring angrily at no one in particular because they are too fucking pissed to say anything. Allura and Shiro fell under that category while Hunk and Coran were trying to hold back their growing worries. Lance is just too damn tired to deal with everyone’s shit, which is why he is sitting next to the red pilot as he sleeps soundlessly besides him.

And Pidge is seething in her chair, her leg bouncing up and down in agitation even though her face clearly shows how she feels. For her, it’s either sit quietly and move her leg or she’ll end up kicking someone in their teeth. 

“Pidge, are you sure you’re okay?”

This was the twelfth time someone had asked if she’s fine and the shorter pilot is on the verge of cracking Shiro’s skull against the table if he didn’t stop. Hence, why the black lion pilot was scowling at her even though underneath he’s worried.

There is nothing wrong with her.

She is not “traumatized” or “upset” over what Keith had done.

The wound may have looked deep because of all the blood, but it is not the first time someone tried stabbing her to death and it isn’t going to be the last. Not when she’ll be constantly going head to head with the Galra so she doesn’t understand why Shiro is being a mother hen over her nor should he be so concerned with her dismissal of the whole thing. It isn’t like he hit any vital organs anyway and she can still use her arm. 

She’s wearing another shirt since Keith put a hole in her first one and the wound is gone-something a good ten minutes in a healing pod could not fix. Once she had gotten out, everyone besides the red paladin had rushed to her side and started touching her, questions about her wellbeing thrown out as they looked over her body like some kind of dissection specimen. After about one minute of chatter, Pidge had screamed at the top of her lungs that there was nothing wrong with her and Keith was the one who needed to be looked after.

Allura, of course, was beyond furious with herself for not being swift enough to push Pidge away.

She had sworn so angrily in Altean, Coran had to cover his own ears while he looked appalled that the normally composed princess even knew some of the words she spit from her mouth. At some point they all had started yelling at each other again, their own concerns and worries manifesting into screaming matches about nothing and everything.

Eventually, as the seconds ticked by in the tense atmosphere, one by one each member began to calm down.

Being angry or getting anxiety over this wasn’t going to solve anything and Pidge was right…they had to focus on Keith.

He looks so…peaceful…sleeping at Lance’s side. It’s almost hard to believe Keith had lost his fucking mind. 

The blue paladin is tense at the close proximity but he does not move, not when Keith is as calm as he is now.  His head is on his knees as his rests in a fetal position across the white sofa like chair, dead to the world; eyes closed for once and his breathing is light and even. The only give away to his discomfort is his face. It is gaunt and there are abrasions along his cheeks from where he had begun to claw at himself when he tried to get away from Shiro and Lance’s arms. 

They understand he’s emotionally drained so they try to not speak to loudly (or in this case nothing at all because it only took one sarcastic, defensive or irritated remark to light the flames of ‘the-great-yelling-match’ between them all again).

“I’m telling you for the last time, I’m. Fine,” the green pilot hisses between clenched teeth for the thirteenth time. She isn’t going to hold a grudge against Keith for attacking her for the second time. In fact, she’s completely alright with it because she knows that he’s not himself and her anger is best suited for those that deserve it...like Zarkon and his stupid army of brainless bots. If only her fearless black lion would let it go and stop focusing her. A stab to the should is the least of everyone’s worries.

“I’m sorry Pidge,” Shiro whispers with a tight smile. “I’m just concerned. We all are.”

“Well don’t be,” the short girl grunts with a glare. “I can take care of myself and also, in case you might have forgotten, I’m not the one with the major head case of crazy and attacking my friends because he thinks we’re the enemy! Something is seriously wrong with him.” At this she briefly pauses to turn her narrowed eyes accusingly at Lance’s direction. “We need to focus on figuring out how to help Keith so stop babying me, thanks.”

“She has a point,” Coran cuts in out as he pulls up a small holographic screen to his face. He had luckily came in from his labs just as the commotion had settled down and was given a full report from Allura on what transpired. “I’ve cataloged all of Keith’s symptoms and mood swings and it’s my conclusion he’s experienced such traumatic events, he can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake anymore. As a more elegant way of putting it then Pidge’s description, Keith’s mind is currently a mess of jumbled information that are confusing his sense of judgement. He cannot tell the real us from whatever Zarkon and his minions did to him under their capture. From the list here, his actions are quite sporadic; he’s withdrawn, aggressive, and delusional. He’s seeing things that aren’t there, thinks we’re out to kill him and among other things-”

“Oh, so almost like schizophrenic?” Lance interrupts.

Keith twitches but overall does not appear to be waking up.

“What is that?” Allura asks in confusion.

“It’s basically everything Coran just said,” Pidge answers. “On earth, someone who has that can’t tell from what’s real and what’s inside their head. His actions are spontaneous, like he has no self-control of himself and his perception is way off which is why he doesn’t realize we aren’t something the Druid’s cooked up to mess with him. He just can’t tell anymore because of this mental breakdown he probably had.”

“It was probably a defense mechanism,” Shiro hummed thoughtfully. “Something to shield him from the torment but ended up causing more harm than good to his brain.”

“Well,” Coran starts slowly. “I cannot guarantee the pods can fix something like mental states being as they are only used for physical injuries…but with some modifications I think Pidge and I can have it up and running. We’ll just have to monitor Keith’s behavior as closely as possible.”

Everyone’s eyes shift to him. 

“Now that I think about it,” Coran continued. “He seemed much more receptive to Lance and Shiro...I think it’s a safe bet to say he feels more comfortable with you two. Maybe, in the meantime, you two should be his...how you say, guardians?”

Lance makes a surprised huff. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“Nonsense!” the elder Altean beams. “You two seem to be the only ones that can render him calm when he has an episode and it will be better until we can adjust the pods.”

Hunk, who has stayed quiet during the exchange finally speaks. “I think that’s a good idea but we have a problem no one seems to be addressing.’

“Oh, and what’s that?” Pidge asks.

“Who’s going to fly the red lion while Keith is in LaLa Land?”

That one question makes everyone pause in a momentary panic. 

“Shit!” Lance swears quietly.

They were one pilot short because there was no way in hell Keith was even remotely mentally capable with syncing with the red lion! There’s a possibility red might not even recognize him as a pilot anymore and that meant they couldn’t form Voltron! Unless…

“I guess I’ll have too,” Allura stands with determination. “It will only be temporarily...until Keith is better.”

That is, if red was willing to work with her.

Lance opens his mouth, ready to agree or argue, but no words are able to form as a blaring alarm sounds from overhead. A moment later, something collides with the castle ship, the entire foundation rocking. Keith’s eyes shoot open, pushing himself away from Lance as another blast erupts from the east wing. The blue pilot grabs him before he can hit the ground and they both end up on the floor as something slams into the side of the ship once more, nearly toppling it this time. 

The broken paladin is shaking violently, body rocking in silent cries as he cups his hands to his ears to try and stop the noise. 

“What the hell was that?!” Shiro demands over the loud siren like sound.

Everyone is in a flurry of quick footsteps to the command center, Allura yelling for Lance to put Keith back to his room as fast as humanly possible and lock him inside. She doesn’t want to, she really doesn’t but she is certain they are being attacked and they couldn’t focus on Keith and whatever was trying to tip them over. It kills her to sound so authoritative but when she looks back to see if Lance heard her, she’s thankful he doesn’t question her and does as she asks almost immediately. 

Lance never realized how fast he can be under pressure. He reaches Keith’s room in record time, slamming open the door and pulling the elder teen behind him,

“Keith, listen to me,” he says, pushing him down onto the bed. “You need to stay here, understand?”

Keith is vigorously shaking his head ‘no’, grabbing onto Lance’s jacket as he turns to leave. He keeps whispering ‘please don’t leave me’, his fingers grabbing so tightly Lance fears if he tries to force his hand off he’s going to end up tearing the fabric. He looks so pitiful and scared, the blue pilot doesn’t want to leave him. 

Taking a deep breath, and reaffirming is resolve, Lance backs up and twists around so he’s facing him. “Shhhhh,” he whispers, resting a hand over his black mane. “I’m coming right back Keith, I have to go fight whatever is attacking us right now.”

The gentle caressing seems to do the trick and soon, Keith is easing his hand but he is still attached to it like a lifeline. 

After some thought, Lance shrugs out of his jacket and almost immediately Keith curls up around it, burying his head into the material. 

“You can keep it until I get back okay?” Then Lance remembers his brief encounter in the bathroom and brushes. He leans down and brushes his lips against Keith’s forehead. “Be a good boy now, okay? And don’t leave this room.”

It seems to have the desired effect because Keith stops shaking, his body going lax and he flops against his right side. There is a haze over his eyes, unfocused and cloudy but Lance doesn’t dwell on it. He got what he wanted and he leaves the room, locking it and running back to the control room where everyone else is.

What sees on the holoscreen makes him pale. 

A ginormous, mechanical rhino as big as the castle ship stands only a few feet away, it’s head lowered as if preparing to ram them.  

“Well, looks like we can’t wait to see if red will accept you,” Coran deadpans. “Princess, go now, the rest of you, prepare the lions to fight.”

A collective nodding of heads and they are off to the hanger, a feeling of unease settling in the pit of their stomach.

If Allura isn’t accepted, then they are royally fucked. 

**To be Continued...**


	14. New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, so long and I promised I wouldn't do that orz long story short: went offline cause I was tired of dealing with bullshit. And been visiting family since Thanksgiving. So that's everything in a nutshell.
> 
> Also, quick note about the lions here...they are all female. Now, before you go 'huh?' let me explain. I believe the lions do have a sense of...being. They aren't human but they have "emotions" and are able to communicate with each other and have the ability to feel. I think because they can make a connection with their pilot, they must have some sort of ability to make it. So, basically sentient except they can't vocal communicate besides roaring to the humans. They can communicate with each other though through their cores. I am not going into further details unless you really have questions and maybe...maybe I can explain in-depth if the need arises. 
> 
> So, without further wasting your time. Enjoy this short chapter which is basically a filler cause you know how much I love those.

**Chapter Fourteen**

Turns out, Red really hates Allura.

Okay, hate is a very strong term so, maybe just strongly dislikes being used by someone other than her chosen.

It’s not a conscious hate per se-as a piece of equipment she doesn’t have any thoughts or ability to communicate vocally besides roaring. She cannot actively move whenever she wants and seemingly has no will of her. Although, that doesn’t mean she can’t  _ feel.  _ Like her sisters, Red picks her pilot that she believes will be able to guide her appropriately and treat her not like a big hunk of metal but as a being they can rely on. The first paladin’s were unfortunately unaware of the lion’s state of awareness were that of an actual Earth lion; alert, ready to pounce on the prey and hunt together. They can communicate with one another and when one felt distress they rallied silently to them with words of encouragement. 

So when Red’s pilot connection broke, she was anything but happy. A bond a lion has with their paladin is usually the strongest bond incomparable to anything in existence. It’s as if their human breathes new life into them making them whole. Having such a bond break unexpectedly-without warning, it leaves a aching deep within the core. 

For weeks Red refused to respond to anything after she discovered her pilot no longer connected to her. She kept her field up, refused to cooperate whenever there was an emergency and almost decided she was better off going back into stasis mode underneath a rock on another stupid planet. Of course, her other lions politely requested she stay until they found her pilot. 

Red didn’t like the way her pilot came back when found though. If anything, it pissed her off sensing him but unable to form that bond again. He was... _ different... _ **_wrong._ **

It unnerved her and made her even more on edge. 

She wanted her chosen back. Not this creature who smelled and looked like Black’s previous pilot. But she senses the urgency and desperation so she allows the organic lifeform to guide her into battle. 

Allura is clumsy at first, the controls in the red lion much tougher to pull and tame then the rest of the lions but she manages to not kill herself or destroy red in the process of trying to take down a monstrous rino. The battle is over quickly though with no need to form Voltron and when she lands the lion back into the hanger Red immediately spits the princess out of the cockpit and turns herself off. 

The other members had joined where red was to congratulate Allura’s syncing and witnessed the abrupt vacate of the princess from the lion’s mouth.

“Princess! Are you alright?!”

Weird mustache man is by her side helping her to her feet.

“I’m okay,” the princess chuckles weakly as she takes the offered hand. “It would appear Red doesn’t like me very much…”

Red almost wants to snort at that assumption. Of course she doesn’t like her, she doesn’t like anything or anyone. She chose not to kick her out because her lions begged her that she needs her help. It actually makes her less inclined to help next time something happens.

The brown skin human looks at her, and it’s as if he can tell what she is thinking because he turns to the group of other humans with a frown.

“Call me crazy...but does she seem more...alive? Like, how is she able to just spit you out Allura?”

Silence is his answer as they ponder his question.

“I noticed,” Allura begins softly as she eyes the smallest lion on the team. “Red was behaving quite aggressively towards the Galra machine. If Shiro hadn’t swooped in, Red would have slammed into it and damaged not only it but itself with me inside...I barely had any control…”

“I have also noticed some things about it.”

Shiro took a step towards the lion and placed a gentle hand on one of its paws. “It seems as if the red lion may miss Keith. Could it be the bond they formed broke when he lost his mind?”

If Red could speak she would have said, “ _ Bingo”  _ but she couldn’t so she settles on silence. 

“That’s a problem then. If Red doesn’t want Allura than we’ll have to find a temporary pilot for it until then. So, the only option would be one of the paladins….”

“I am not giving up yellow!” Hunk speaks up first. “I mean, I don’t know about you guys but, I kind of have a great thing going with em and I don’t want to lose. Even if it is for a little while.”

Same can be said about Pidge and Green. They are practically joined at the hip now with her new upgrades. And she wasn’t about to explain the million on million of coding to the person if they had to switch.

Shiro, unfortunately can't switch at all even if he tried. 

Like Red, Black was stubborn as a mule. She chose her pilot specifically because she  **_knew_ ** he would be the one to lead them into battle and come out victorious. Shiro is a strong leader, a human she never imagined would be the one to guide her body and she would like to keep it that way.

Which only meant…

Lance looks at Red, a frown on his lips as he looks upon her with unease. 

Red looks back, eyes still black. 

This human confuses her. She can sense his uncertainty...his hesitation. It comes off him in waves but she also senses a growing resolve and determination. Blue in her head tells her this one is good. Not as good as her own but enough. He has a fiery soul, wild and untamable beneath the soft rushing water of waves gently lapping at the sandy beach. Oddly, Red senses something deeper beneath those depths-faint. A whisper of emotion that beats in time with his heart. 

It is that feeling that prompts her to turn on when the human sits inside to check if she would accept him. 

The connection is instantaneous. 

And she can clearly see everything and anything the human has to hide. Confusion, regret, hope, revenge and above all,  _ love.  _

This human...this loud mouth breather, cares deeply for her pilot. Something she only thought she was capable of. 

Blue cheers from somewhere in the back of her mind and she muses what that will mean for her sister. She brushes against her core in a way that says ‘ _ I am fine with the princess being my guide’. _

Besides, it’s only for a short while.

For now, Red will accept Lance.

**To be Continued....**


	15. Whelp my life got more messy

6/10/2018

Hi guys. I would first like to thank everyone for their love and support. I left the hospital Friday and well...shitty things are happening and I don't know how to handle it emotionally. Still taking care of my grandma and shit and they found out i had form of mono? It was environmental cause lets face it the last relationship I've been in was when I was in high school and I just turned 26 in April. Admittedly I don't even do flings. I hate physical contact with people it rubs me the wrong way. Anyways. I'm trying to heal so I'm like...fuck my life cause it gets worse. I have Lupus. All the important tests the doctor did won't be available until Monday or Tuesday and the joke is when those tests results come back and he doesn't find anything...bone marrow test might be scheduled. I'm actually hoping the tests come back And it's just my lupus acting up because apparently we have a history of sickle cell from my dads side. It's scary...

And yesterday was just the fucking worse. I want to tell you all what happened and I may just explain it on my Tumblr when I am able to get it out.... But not now. 

No one has to reply to this cause I'm going to delete this entire post when I update...when I can. I still feel like shit but I'll be fine. Thanks again for the encouraging words and I hope to update when I can. I desperately need something to focus on so I don't have to think about how this year has been shitty. You'll know when I do lol 

I only type here on AO3 cause it's easier and fast to vent. I know I shouldn't but I literally have no friends at all to talk to. I'm a ghost on the internet and I don't many followers my other account. One IRL friend but he's dealing with his own shit all the way in South Carolina and I can't bother him with my crap. So when I say I really appreciate your comments it is coming from the heart cause I know I have my readers to keep my spirits up. After this I am defiantly giving you guys the best chapters I can give. 

So yeah....I just realize the last part sounds pathetic and whiney but it's true. I AM NOT implying I want people to follow me. I think it's shitty people do that to gain them. I just wanted to explain...

Ugh I need to shut up. Anyways, I never know how to end this so I'm going go just stop here before I type everyone's head off. 

 

Old:  
Hi guys I know it's been forever but I can't wait to inform you all I've been having a lot if health issues. I had went to Texas for my birthday (yay) and came back on April 30. Since then I've had a bad cough which got to the point I couldn't say anything without going into a coughing fit. Decided to go to the hospital ER may 29. They slapped a bandage on it and sent me home. They never addressed my other issues. Went back to the same er because the light headedness I told them about first time became worse (hit my head on the car window).

Dr ran more tests and admitted me for GI bleeding and being anemic. I've ALWAYS been anemic yet I had 2 bags of blood and some other shit done. GI Dr says no bleed and it was probably my period that was causing the anemia...i'm like wtaf. He sent me home yesterday with "follow up with pcp then see gastro Dr in 2 weeks) but today I went to the pcp, got seen and he says I haven't healed at all. Also have an enlarged spleen so guess where I am again?! Another admission into the hospital. With no laptop and nothing to do because I'm sick, my grandmother is sick and my younger brother who moved out moved the fuck back in and there is no one here so I need to vent my fucking frustrations. 

I have no insurance. I have lupus and i'm bipolar. I take care of my grandmother who is constantly calling my name to do stuff and i'm burnt out. I'm so burnt out I am back in the fucking hospital which hopefully they will figure out what is wrong. Yes this is a different hospital I did not go back to the other one. 

So what i'm trying to say is...no updates...was going to a few days ago but then all this shit happened and it's on my laptop. And don't ask if someone can bring it. No one in the house gives two shits to stay the night last time I was admitted so I'm not holding my breath. 

 

Will try and update on my condition when I can. Thanks everyone who stuck by the stories I've written even though I'm slow as fuck with updates. Sorry for the short ness and confusion I don't have the strength or energy to go into details. Yes I feel safe so please don't call the police lol just...feeling like no one gives a fuck about me in my own home and it just really sucks...ya know? Hoping my readers can cheer me up cause I might be here a while :D


	16. GUESS WHO IS BACK IN THE HOSPITAL?!

7-7-18

I know you guys are tired of no updates but... Guess whose ass had to go back to the hospital after my last visit?! This woman who was admitted Tuesday and STILL haven't been released. Guys, this is what having no insurance with a huge lupus flare does to people. Last time I was admitted I was walking with a cane, my car died and i was going through so much. They never addressed my Lupus last time so the walking, stiffness became so bad I could barely lie down or roll over, shit I had the emotions of someone who felt they were going to be dead by 30 and I'm 26! Every morning they put a shot in my belly that burns for 10min so I don't form blood clots in my legs and it really fucking burns. 

I was admitted on July 3rd BUT GUYS! They finally put me back on medicine I need to manage my lupus! I need prednisone and another pill and they started me on 60mg in a shot through the IV. No biggie bc they wanted it in my system ASAP so they could ween me down before I went home. Funny story...when I was admitted they couldn't find a vein in the er so they stuck it...in my right wrist...which I use to do shit. It bust so they had to take it out when I came upstairs bc they wanted to start on my meds right away. Now it's in my left elbow bend which is fine cause nurses tried 7 times before using this cool vein finder that you can see under the skin. 

ANYWAYS!

Since being here I have been feeling more energized to do shit as you can read by me jumping everywhere which is my normal when not being on my meds for so long and what I didn't want to do like draw and type have come back full force but trust me I still need rest and not do to much stuff until I am 100% me again which means I have a surprise for you guys! 

So for a long time I've been thinking of doing some rework on Goodbye Apathy (which title may change in the future but not now) I've been trying to get started on it but ya know for the past 3 months my life has been shit so I'm saying the plan now so you guys will be well informed.

I am cutting out all the flashbacks and putting them in their own section. I will be sure to mark each chapter as I'll be rearranging most of everything in the actual story so it flows better AND anyone uncomfortable with "rape" ...even I didn't know what the fuck I was thinking with that shit...I'm just taking it out completely leaving dubious content with Shiro and Lance. A lot of new content is coming and I just wanted to let you guys know that I swear if I get sick one more damn time I'm flipping desks!!!! I swear after this no more updates. I'm deleting all this shit and keeping it as a reminder on my Tumblr...I'll post proof if no one believes me however trust me this has NOT BEEN FUN! Hopefully this will be my last and my mother will be here be here next week for an entire month so yay! I really don't have to do shit except relax and just be...well do things I want to do like type and draw. I love you all for your patience and shit. You are the MVPS in my heart!


End file.
